In GuardYourSpeak:
Don’t Even Think About It, we
mentioned that in the introduction to Sefer Chofetz Chaim the Chofetz Chaim
lists 17 Laveen (negative mitzvos) and 14 Aseen (positive mitzvos) that one
might potentially violate by either speaking or believing loshon hora.
While most of these mitzvos are not about loshon hora per se in their essence,
the Chofetz Chaim tells us that when one crosses the line on loshon hora he may
also be violating one or more of these Aseen or Laveen.
Then in GuardYourSpeak:
Duck!, we tightened the noose
around the vagueness by jettisoning the word potentially, and then noted
that when you decided to create even the faintest of sound waves that tilted
toward Loshon Hora you empowered the Satan to charge you with violating an
absolute minimum of 6 out of the 17 Laveen and 5 of the 14 Aseen that the
Chofetz Chaim listed in the introduction to his sefer. And for good
measure, you also brought two of the three curses down upon your head.
For those
without calculators, this works out to a minimum of 11Torah violations for
every comment that crosses the line from what is permitted to what is not, with
two curses thrown in for good measure.
And one of them
is Do not go tale-bearing about another Jew.
You told Reuven
what Shimon said about him?
Mazel tov! The Chofetz Chaim specifically mentions you
by name in his sefer. Not the one your
parents gave you when they named you for your great uncle, but the one that
names you for yourself, because the act of placing into Reuven’s ears what came
out of Shimon’s mouth stamped you as a talebearer, for the Chofetz Chaim asks
rhetorically who is a talebearer, and then answers: The one who learns
about things and then goes from place-to-place saying “This is what he said
about you,” or “This is what I heard he did to you.”
And Mr.
Talebearer, if you could fold your cards at this point and slip away quietly
into the night things would be bad enough because the Chofetz Chaim adds that
even if the Rechilus that you spoke is true, your type of language destroys the
world.
But the truth is
that your situation isn’t bad enough as is. It’s actually much worse than that by a long shot
because, ironically enough, the Chofetz Chaim’s very severe indictment of your
loose lips is, comparatively speaking, the good news.
After informing
us in very severe terms that your type of language destroys the world, the
Chofetz Chaim then tells us that every verbal foray into the nether world of
Rechilus brings even a greater sin in its train which is included in the
of Lav of Do not go tale-bearing about another Jew.
You told Reuven
what Shimon said about him?
Mazel tov
again! You have double dipped! Your remarks degraded a fellow Jew thereby
qualifying them as Loshon Hora, even if they were truthful.
