During the Nine Days, we practice habits of mourning over the destruction of our two Batei Mikdashos, our two Temples, and the millions of Jewish lives that were lost in the wake of their ruin. The Gemara teaches us that the root of these downfalls was when the meraglim, spies, spoke lashon hara, evil slander about Eretz Yisrael.
When the Torah tells us about our travels in the desert, it relates, “Vayis’u mei’Chatzeiros vayachanu b’Rismah – They traveled from Chatzeiros and camped in Rismah.” The Sifsei Chachamim explains that Rashi was bothered by the fact that, earlier in Bamidbar, it says that we traveled from Chatzeiros and camped in Midbar Paran. Rashi answers that Rismah was the same location as Midbar Paran but it was called Rismah because the episode of the meraglim took place there and they were punished with gachalei risomim, coals of broom which never get extinguished. This is to highlight how everlasting and burning is the punishment for lashon hara.
It is noteworthy that if Hashem wanted to allude to the meraglim, He could have said “Vayachanu b’Pi Rah – And they camped in the place of the Bad Mouth.” What Hashem wants to teach us is that in order to effectively deal with the seductive sin of lashon hara, we need to think how terrible its punishment is. Otherwise, it is almost impossible to avoid this common sin. As the Gemara teaches us grimly, “V’kulon ba’avak lashon hara – And everyone is guilty with the ‘dust’ of lashon hara.” When we were schoolchildren, we were taught the ditty, “Lashon hara, lammed hei, go to gehenom the easy way.”
Hashem created a special disease, tzora’as, for the metzorah. The metzorah is one who is ‘motzi rah,’ who expresses evil and Hashem banished him from the three camps, teaching us that he’s not fit for human society. In no uncertain terms, the Gemara says, “Kol hamisaper lashon hara, ra’u’i l’hashlicho l’kelavim – Whoever speaks lashon hara is deserving to be thrown to the dogs.” The Meam Loez says that even one who doesn’t get a dermatological tzora’as gets tzora’as of the neshama, the soul, and, if he doesn’t do teshuva, when he leaves the world the righteous stay away from him and he is punished in the chamber in hell called Tit Yavan. Furthermore, the Chofetz Chaim informs us that sometimes today, instead of tzora’as, the one who speaks lashon hara is struck with aniyus, poverty.
The Chovos HaLevovos gives us a chilling deterrent from speaking lashon hara. He warns us that if we speak lashon hara about someone, Hashem will take away some of our merits and give them to the person we spoke badly about. Since that person is usually someone we do not like, we certainly wouldn’t want them to get our merits.
We know that during the days of sefira, the 24,000 disciples of Rabbi Akiva died because they didn’t give kavod, honor, one to another. The Maharsha adds that they spoke lashon hara about on another. The Gemara reveals in Masechtas Yevamos that they all died from the painful death of askara, diphtheria. This is a disease where skin slowly grows over the windpipe, leading to an agonizing death. The Gemara in Berachos further informs us that the pasuk says, “L’maves totza’os – Issues of death.” The numerical value of totza’os is 903 because there are 903 ways to die – and askara is the very worst. Once again, we are being reminded of how terrible the consequences are of speaking badly about another person.
When we abstain from eating meat, drinking wine, swimming, listening to music and going to weddings, this is to cause us to reflect about our losses due to the sin of lashon hara. It should prompt us to take precautions to eradicate this practice from our conversations with our family, while in shul or at work, with our neighbors, around the pool and under the umbrella tables. The Tuvcha Yabi’u recommends the following initial step. He says that we should at least get into the practice of never mentioning names of people or groups when we tell a story. This will greatly minimize our culpability in this deadly area.
In Tehillim, Dovid HaMelech says that Hashem gave the mouth two gates, the teeth and the lips, in order to remind us how carefully we should guard what comes out of our mouths. My good friend Robby Neuman, of ChickensForShabbos.com fame (What a good place to give tzedakah!), pointed out to me that the pasuk says, “Hamaves v’hachaim b’yad halashon – Death and life are in the hands of the tongue.” He observed that it should have simply said, “Hamaves v’hachaim b’halashon – Death and life are in the tongue.” What does the word b’yad, in the hands, come to convey. He answers beautifully that we can speak lashon hara with our hands through texting, WhatsApp, email, instant messaging and the like. Our hands have no gates and they are weapons of mass destruction.
As we come to the sad Shabbos of Shabbos Chazon, our table talk with our family should be about how all of us can take concrete steps to ensure that, just like we’re careful that everything that enters our mouths should be kosher, so too, we should be certain that the words that emerge from our mouths are also glatt kosher.
In that merit, Hashem should bless us with long life, good health, everything wonderful, and the geulah sheleimah bimheira b’yameinu.
Transcribed and edited by Shelley Zeitlin.
