Divrei Metzorah
The Effect of Shmiras HaLoshon
This week’s parsha outlines the complex process required to repurify a metzorah, one who has been afflicted with tzara’as. One cannot help but be struck by the complexity of the process. First, a metzorah was forced to live alone until his lesions contracted to the point of halachic insignificance, which could take years (and in the case of Uzziah HaMelech, never happened – he spent the last --- years of his life in a private exile). Then, after a Kohen had determined that his disease had regressed sufficiently, the metzorah had to undergo two full series of repurifications before he could resume normal life. The first was a complex ceremony involving two birds, a piece of cedar wood, and the second was an intricate ceremony in the Bais HaMikdash with three animal offerings, a meal-offering, and an anointment of oil. During each phase, the metzorah was required to shave all the hair on his body – two tedious, painful, and embarrassing processes.
It is easy to see that far more effort is needed to clean up a metzorah than one who has contracted any other form of tumah, spiritual filth, more even than someone who has come into contact with a dead body, which is considered avi avos hatumah, the most potent form one can experience. Clearly, tzara’as has a profound effect upon its victims.
Chazal also tell us that the primary way of acquiring tzara’as comes through speaking loshon hara. Since, however, we have lost the privilege of tzara’as (for it is a privilege to have such a clear indicator of our spiritual status), we have also lost a principle deterrent to speaking loshon hara. Therefore, we must seek other motivators.
HaRav Mendel Kessin shlit”a has done the research for us. He has delivered a lecture, “The True Power of Speech: How to Significantly Improve Your Good Fortune-Mazel,” so many times, in person and by video (through the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation) that it has become probably the most heard drashah since the days of Yishai, father of Dovid HaMelech, who gave shiurim to 600,000 people at one time. We certainly owe great gratitude to Rabbi Kessin for not only researching and composing this shiur, but also for his awesome dedication to repeating it for so many years to as many members of Klal Yisroel who would listen. It is also fitting to review the main points of his shiur.
Rabbi Kessin begins with a ma’aseh of the Chofetz Chaim. One Purim, a bochur decided to visit the Chofetz Chaim, who was then at his little home, receiving visitors and preparing for his own Purim seudah. This bochur, who had imbibed a bit too much wine, pushed his way through the crowd, stood in front of the Chofetz Chaim, and announced, “Rebbe, I want you to promise me that I will sit next to you in Olam Haboh!” Shocked at this bochur’s audacity – after all, he was demanding the same level of Divine reward as the Chofetz Chaim – the onlookers began to push this bochur away, until the Chofetz Chaim himself saw that he was drunk and waved them off him. Later on, when the Chofetz Chaim arose to walk over to his table and begin his seudah, this bochur jumped in his way and demanded, “Rebbe, I refuse to let you pass until you promise me that I will sit next to you in Olam Haboh!” The Chofetz Chaim looked hard at this bochur and calmly said, “If you can promise me that you will no longer speak or listen to loshon hora, I promise that you will sit next to me in Olam Haboh.” Surprised, the bochur immediately sobered up, but he stood there, saying nothing, apparently assuming that he could not live up to the Chofetz Chaim’s one condition. Announced the Chofetz Chaim, “Here’s a bochur, standing at the gates of Shamayim, and he doesn’t want to walk in? Move him aside!” And they did.
Like any other ma’aseh, this one requires analysis to glean the depths of its message. First, can anyone imagine the reward level of the Chofetz Chaim, the gadol and tzaddik hador? The yeshiva he headed, the sefarim he wrote, and the endless chasadim he performed, all testify to an incredible level of greatness. First, how could the Chofetz Chaim, an utter ish emes, offer any part of Olam Haboh? Certainly, he was not the owner of the property! The answer is that the Chofetz Chaim was telling this bochur that no matter how much he accomplishes in this world, he has the potential to receive a reward equal to that of the Chofetz Chaim himself – and the key to that is shmiras haloshon. We then have to ask, “How does shmiras haloshon accomplish so much?”
Rabbi Kessin then defines loshon hora as “any communication that will harm a fellow Jew.” When Chazal discuss the concept of loshon hora, however, they sue unusually strong language. SOURCES Rabbi Alexandri went into the marketplace and announced, “Who wants long life?” Being that he was a gadol, everyone gathered to hear him. He then cited the posuk, “Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceitfully.” In other words, avoiding loshon hora actually promotes life, far more than exercise and nutrition. Why? What’s more, the Midrash testifies, Hashem testifies to us, “I can save you from any situation, as long as you do not speak loshon hora.” What is the connection? Furthermore, the Yerushalmi in Peah declares, “Just as Talmud Torah is the greatest of all mitzvos, loshon hora is the greatest of all aveiros.” It’s worse than chillul Shabbos or eating on Yom Kippur? What about murder, idol-worship, and immorality, three sins for which we must give up our lives rather than transgress them? Answers the Gemara: Loshon hora is worse than all three, combined! Yet another Midrash states that Achav HaMelech never lost a battle in forty years, even though his generation was steeped in idol-worship. On the other hand, Saul HaMelech’s military was far more checkered; often, he would lose battle after battle, in spite of the fact that his generation learned Torah so well that even school-children could routinely explain forty-eight dimensions of meaning in a single posuk. What was the key factor? The people of Achav’s have fallen down in other respects, but they did not speak loshon hara; while those of Saul did stumble in this matter. What’s more, the day after Moshe Rabeinu killed the Egyptian who had been mercilessly beating a Jew, he encountered two Jews fighting and tried to intervene. For this he was rewarded with, “Are you going to kill me, just like you killed the Egyptian?” Moshe said to himself, “Surely, the matter is known.” Rashi cites a Midrash which tells us that Moshe received an answer to a question that had been nagging him for some time: why did the Jews deserve to be tortured and enslaved for so many years? When he saw that mesirah, informing to the authorities (and a more venal form of loshon hora) was extant among the Jews, and therefore, that loshon hora itself was prevalent, he understood that that was the underlying cause for their suffering – but not the avodah zarah which many of them had fallen into.
We see from all these statements of Chazal that loshon hara possesses a unique destructive power, far beyond that of any other mitzvoh, and that shmiras haloshon is the key to the many great pleasures that Hashem wishes to shower upon us.
When Hashem created the world, among the guiding concepts that he used was that of din, justice, because He desired that every human being should earn his or her place in olam haboh. The Chofetz Chaim cites the posuk, “Lo hibit avone b’Yaakov – that surprisingly, except for certain occasions such as Rosh HaShanah, Hashem stays out of the judgment process. Instead, He has created special malachim and formed the Beis Din Shel Ma’alah, the Heavenly Court. How does this work? Hashem has also created a malach which has several names, each one corresponding to his functions. As the Yetzer Hara, he tempts people to sin; as the Soton, he prosecutes them in the Bais Din Shel Ma’alah; and as the Malach HaMavais, he executes the court’s decisions.
Incredibly, even though these malachim who serve as judges have access to all earthly events, they do not judge every one of them. In fact, technically they can overlook every sin a person ever commits! This information is priceless, for it is one of two ways that we can influence our mazal, our fortune, in this world. (The other one, of course, is to increase our merits by performing more mitzvohs.)
Now, if we analyze this system, it presents to us a golden opportunity. If we can somehow stop the Soton from bringing his case, there is no judgment, and there is no punishment. How can we stop him? Says Rabbi Kessin: if we analyze the din itself, we see that it operates upon the concept of middah-k’neged middah; namely, that what we do is reflected back onto us. For example, if a Jew shows rachmanus, mercy, upon a fellow Jew who wronged him, that act does not occur in a vacuum. Instead, it is put “on file” in Heaven, and later on, if that Jew sins, the Heavenly Court looks over his portfolio of mitzvos, and when they find that merciful mitzvoh, they he must show mercy upon him, and therefore suspend his punishment – an act of mercy – until later, and by that time, he may have done teshuvah, thus wiping the sin off his record completely. Another example: Whenever a Jew gives tzedakah to a poor person, he in turn will later be reimbursed. (This is the meaning of Hashem’s promise to us: “Test Me with your tzedakah” (Chofetz Chaim – Ahavas Chesed))
How do we do stop the prosecutions of the Soton? By its very essence, prosecution is derogatory speech – loshon hora. Therefore, the Zohar (Parshas Pekudei) brings a concept: Just as middah-k’neged-middah can stop a din against a person, it can also start a din. How? When a Jew speaks loshon hora against a fellow Jew, in Heaven, the Soton begins to prosecute – speak loshon hora – about him. Hashem has tied the Soton’s ability to condemn you upon your condemnation of other Jews. In other words, when a Jew speaks loshon hora, he is giving his greatest enemy – the Soton -- access to his file of sins. For every sin of loshon hora – for every word – he can reveal that person’s sins to the Heavenly Court, for judgment and punishment. One careless phone conversation can put a Jew on the docket hundreds of times. Imagine being forced to go to court over and over again – most of us are wrecks after one day in traffic court!
Here is one more mashal. Someone commits a crime, then calls up the police and confesses everything, down to the last detail. He must be some kind of meshuggah, right? That, however, is exactly what a Jew is doing, every time that he speaks loshon hora.
At first glance, this system seems cruel. Why would Hashem stick us under the Soton’s thumb? In actuality, however, this system reflects Hashem’s boundless love for us, for He has put the Soton under our thumbs. We have so many safeguards from punishment – first, we do not have to sin; second, if we do sin, we can always do teshuvah; and thirdly, since the Soton can only prosecute if we speak loshon hora -- if we do not speak loshon hora, he cannot prosecute! We are completely in charge of our mazal!
(Now, Rabbi Kessin adds, there is one other way to land in court. Chazal tell us that when a Jew is in a place of danger, he is immediately judged. Therefore, we must rely upon Hashem’s Mercy so that we care never placed in danger against our will, and of course upon our own common sense that we do not put ourselves in danger. Still, he states, the vast majority of our appearances in court are caused directly by our own loshon hora.)
So why do we not immediately suffer every time we slander someone else? Answers Rabbi Kessin: two obstacles might get us off the hook. First, Bais Din might acquit us; for example, perhaps the sin that the Soton describes was done b’onaiss, we were forced into it. Second, Bais Din first responds to the Soton’s prosecutions by looking into our file of mitzvos – perhaps there are acts of chesed and rachamim that can suspend the judgment, mddah-k’neged-middah. This parallels the concept of a melitz yosher, a defending malach who can find a zechus to shield a person from punishment.
However, should a Jew be found without merits, Bais Din then passes judgment over him and authorizes the Soton to carry out his third role, that of the Malach HaMavais, and execute the punishment. Rabbi Kessin notes that it seems to us that our sorrows often come to us in bunches, one after the next. Why? In shomayim, we had been accumulating a backlog of sin-cases against us, but the Soton had not been able to prosecute, because our acts of chesed and rachamim had protected us. Suddenly, the sins outnumbered the mitzvos, the shield was now down, and the Soton can now exact punishment – not only from new aveiros, but also from those previous ones whose judgment had been suspended. When a person finds himself overwhelmed by tzaros, he should immediately do acts of chesed – e.g. help out a member of his family, donate to a yeshiva – to rebuild that shield.
In addition, our listening to loshon hora also enables the Soton, for, middah-k’neged-middah, Bais Din can now order him, “Just as Ploni listened to loshon hora, so also, we will listen to you.” Even the unaware subject of the conversation is also shlepped into court. How? The Soton can also work through ayin hora, the “evil eye,” which is no mere spooky notion, but a straightforward concept. Just as slanderous reports about an important person can trigger a legal investigation here on earth, so also does loshon hora about a person bring about a Heavenly inquiry into his deeds, to ascertain if he deserves what he possesses. Since a huge proportion of what we own comes from Hashem’s Mercy upon us, not through our own merits, an ayin hora can be extremely damaging. The Talmudic sage Rav said that in his day, ninety-nine percent of people died because of ayin hora, which is often brought about by loshon hora. However, there is a cure: if a person does not listen to loshon hora, then Bais Din says to the Soton, “We refuse to listen to your testimony about him. The inquiry is closed.”
Certainly, says Rabbi Kessin, we should not go out, sin, and then rely upon our adherence to shmiras haloshon to protect us. Rather, he advises, since practically all of us do sin, and many of those sins are not atoned for, it is best to keep these four golden words in mind when the topic of other Jews comes up in conversation: “Is it worth it?” Is the fleeting phony pleasure of talking down about a fellow Jew worth a day in court, facing the Soton as D.A.? The equation is obviously unequal.
Now, even if a person completely avoids loshon hora, he still must eventually face judgment for those sins that he does not do teshuva. However, answers Rabbi Kessin, in that case, Hashem Himself is the Judge, and He can have rachmanus upon the sinner, even without any compensating acts of chesed and rachmanus on which to rely. Therefore, He can suspend any punishment, then send “reminders” in the form of rabbanim and teachers who can rebuke, sefarim which can inform a person of his missteps, seeing others’ suffering, or even small yissurim, in order to prompt the transgressor to do teshuvah. If one still does not respond to these wake-up-calls, Hashem can then execute judgment upon him, but in a merciful way, such as spreading the punishment over many years, as He did for the Jewish people after the cheit haeigel, or upon the transgressor’s possessions instead of upon himself, as He does through tzaraas upon one’s house or one’s clothing.
At this point, the deeper meanings of Chazal’s statements become clear. When Rabbi Alexandri declared that shmiras haloshon brings long life, he was referring to the fact that one who guards his tongue will be judged by Hashem, Avinu Malkeinu, Himself, and so can hope for the most merciful judgment, in this case a punishment spread over a long time, and therefore receives a long life to cover that punishment. However, one who speaks loshon hora finds himself at the “mercy” of the Soton, who will get him, sooner before later. Likewise, when Hashem promises us that “I can save us from any situation, as long as you do not speak loshon hora, He is directly referring to our appointing Him (by not speaking loshon hora) the All-Merciful Judge of our deeds, rather than Bais Din, which must follow the rules of strict din. The Yerushalmi in Peah does not mean that loshon hora in itself is the worst aveira; after all, an earthly bais din does not punish for loshon hora, but it can proscribe many other punishments, such as execution, for many other sins. Rather, it is referring to the consequences of sin, and based upon the concept described above, loshon hora has no competition when it comes to destructive results. Because Achav and his generation controlled their speech, the Heavenly Bais Din never saw their terrible sins, and they could win battle after battle, unencumbered by the Soton. However, in the time of Shaul, that generation’s greatness in Torah could not overcome the edicts of the Soton, which had become unleashed by their loshon hora, and so they suffered many military defeats. And when Moshe realized that loshon hora was rampant among his enslaved nation, he knew that the Soton was behind all their sufferings. Therefore, “truly the matter is known” -- to the Soton!
Therefore, whenever you feel tempted to communicate anything negative about a fellow Jew, ask yourself, “Is it worth it?” Is my audience’s knowing this juicy tidbit worth giving my worst enemy – the Soton – the power to slander me in Bais Din, get a guilty verdict, change into the Malach HaMavais, and blindside me with punishments? Some questions don’t require an answer.
(For the rest of Rabbi Kessin’s lecture, please turn to Divrei Masei.)