Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

And now day number 136 on page 762 in the Orchas Hadikim, in the Treasure for Life edition of the Ways of the Righteous, the Gate of Slander. Umash ha'amush ha'shgul l'shanora k'neged oysen shal shavers. And this, that our sages mentioned in the Talmud, that one who speaks l'shanora is worse than the three, than committing the three cardinal sins, ha'peirish kach, says this is the reason.
K'neged ha'over al oysen shalosh ha'averis pam ahas me'cham ha'surov ha'yeitzer, ve'lo k'neged ha'mashumat, ha'yotze min ha'klal, la'avor alein b'chol eis, ve'od ba'al l'shanora koshul olas ha'shuvah. He says, okay, someone fell into temptation of idolatry, okay. Someone fell into temptation of an illicit relationship, okay. It's a terrible sin. It says to die, not to commit such a sin, okay, great. But he fell into temptation. At least he could do teshuvah. He says, but someone who speaks l'shanora, it's very difficult for them to do teshuvah.
Koshul olas ha'shuvah, ke'ven shu'hu rag'il b'kach ve'lim e'i l'shanu l'da b'ra. He taught his tongue to speak negatively about other people. Ve'od ha'kheit kal b'einav. So the sin becomes light in their eyes. Ke'yomar lo'asisi rag'di bur ba'almo. It's just words. Who cares? I'm not, I'm not stabbing the guy. It's not like I did such a terrible thing. It's not like I, I committed a sin. I just said a few words. People don't take words as seriously.
Ve'lo yitey ley ve'lo rov a'nezik she'aseh, and he doesn't notice and pay attention to how much damage he causes with his tongue, with his words. It's just words. Ve'lo yoshuv, and such a person won't consider repenting. He won't consider asking forgiveness. He won't consider how grave a sin this may have been. Ve'afilu im yoshuv, ein shuvah seshlema. And even if he does repent, sometimes his repentance is not complete. Why? Because I know the guy and the guy deserves it.
You know, he really is a bad guy. People should know. And then we justify the things that we said. You know, maybe I shouldn't have said it, but I don't really care because, and we've all met people like this who don't take the words of Lashon Hara seriously. Ki ein omak yigodol hachei tashas, he doesn't realize how much damage he may have done. You may have lost someone their job. You may have lost someone's marriage because of saying Lashon Hara.
You may have costed someone their relationship with their children. You may have costed someone their livelihood. You may have costed someone their life because of speaking Lashon Hara. Ve'od hu tzorekh levakish mechilo me'osam she'dibar alayim. Also you have to ask Lashon Hara, you have to ask, sorry, you have to ask forgiveness from those that you spoke about them. Ve'hu ein azokher misbar kulam. He doesn't remember everyone. I don't remember everyone I spoke. I spoke about so many people, I have no idea.
I'm supposed to remember who I spoke about. I talk about everybody. Everybody's fair game. Ve'yei she'dibar alav ha'asalo ra'avi hiziklo. And there are those that we spoke negatively about them and caused them damage. Ve'hu einu edem midibar alav. And now this guy doesn't know who spoke about him, if you're the recipient of such negative speech. Ki Lashon Hara mechuseh umakah besesa. Our sages tell us that slander is concealed and it strikes in secret. Ve'hu bikan umakah b'lashonu echod harochek mimenu.
And you could be standing here and damage a person a thousand miles away, a million miles away by the Lashon Hara that you speak. And we're going to talk about this in a very pragmatic way in a minute. Ve'zeh hachoteh mizbayesh mimenu lehodiah shegomolo ra'ah. Now if a person wants to do Teshuvah, what's going to be the challenge with doing Teshuvah? I'm kind of embarrassed to tell him what I said about him. I don't want to go over and tell him what I said. So embarrassing.
Ve'ein lo mechilu lo zeh. And there's no, oh sorry, hu pa'amim yida'abar alpagam mishpochah ve'yazik le'doros ha'boy ma'achorah. Ve'ein lo mechilu lo zeh. And sometimes a person can say truthful things about somebody else. What? It's the truth. It's not Lashon Hara, it's the truth. That's Lashon Hara. It's when it's true. And now you damage generations, generations, because of the words we speak. Ki yom rabbi s'einu zachan l'rochah, our sages of blessed memory said, hamedabir be'pagam
mishpochah, ve'ein lo mechila olamis, the Talmud in Yerushalmi, the Jerusalem Talmud says that one who speaks negatively about a family or dynasty can never attain forgiveness ever, forever. Why not? Why not? What's such a grave sin? What's the big deal? You know what the big deal is? The big deal is that first is some of the people may have passed away already. They had suffered that pain, right?
But now you don't even know the impact that it may have had on the entire lineage of those people. For example, if someone were to say that someone wasn't an authentic Kohen, they're not an authentic Kohen. How? The mother had an affair, the children are not really from this father, right? Whatever it may be. What do you mean it's true? It's true. It's true. A person has to be so careful what they say. The words leave our lips and they can never come back.
A person has to be very, very, very careful about this. The part that I want to emphasize about practical application of this is to me it is unconscionable what goes on in news media, all in the name of news, all in the name of journalism. But I'm a journalist. So you can say whatever you want about whoever you want, destroy their lives, destroy their reputation, destroy their careers. I'm a journalist. I'm an undercover journalist.
I am a, and fill in the blank, I work for the New York Times, I work for CNN, I work for Fox News, for whoever it may be. And it is a tragic thing that people feel free to talk about whoever they want, whenever they want, however they want, all in the name of journalism. And by the way, nighttime comedy. They can laugh at whoever they want. They can make mockery of people. They can literally destroy people's lives with one joke, their reputation, their lifetime achievements.
And we just laugh along because it's a comedy. It's fine. Laugh. It's just, we're just joking. It's fine. Someone who's so casual with his words may even speak negatively against Hashem. They have set their mouths against heaven and their tongues roam the earth. And we know that there's no punishment like the punishment that is meted out to one who speaks against heaven. Our sages teach us that our forefathers were tested with 10 trials, but their decree was sealed only because of slander.
As it is written, Surely, as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you. As it is written, And Hashem heard the voice of your words and was angry and swore. We know that the Jewish people suffered a great measure of pain because of the Lashon Hara that they heard from the spies that were sent in to spy the land of Israel. Oh, terrible punishment the Jews. None of the Jews that were living in that generation made it into the land of Israel.
They all died in the desert. The next generation made it into the land of Israel. Why? Because of Lashon Hara. That's how grave the sin is. And Torah does not protect slanderers. We know Doeg, the Edomite, because he spoke slander, his wisdom did not help him and his Torah did not protect him. We know that a transgression extinguishes a mitzvah, but a transgression does not extinguish Torah. This applies to one who commits a transgression by chance and not one who removes from himself
the yoke of the Torah's warning against sin. So there is a, what is a mitzvah? We mentioned this dozens of times. What is a mitzvah, Mark? It's a tool to bring you closer to God. A mitzvah is an opportunity to get closer to God. What is a sin, an avera? Something that distances us from God. It makes a lot of sense now why the Talmud says that if one does a sin, it removes a mitzvah. Why? Because the mitzvah brings us closer to God.
A sin distances us, so it removed the mitzvah. It removed a closeness from God. Each mitzvah brings us a step closer. Some mitzvahs can take us many steps closer depending on our connection, depending on our intention, depending on our, the way in which that mitzvah is bringing us closer. We know that there was one mitzvah that was performed by one of the individuals mentioned in the Talmud, Rebbe Eliezer ben Durdia, his name was Rebbe. They named him Rebbe after he died. Who named him Rebbe?
A heavenly voice came out. He did terrible things. He lived a very promiscuous lifestyle. He ran around from harlot to harlot. He ran, did terrible things. Didn't learn Torah. Didn't do mitzvahs. Didn't keep Shabbos. Didn't have a husband in his life. But he did the mitzvah of teshuva. He did a mitzvah of repentance with such intensity, the heavenly voice came out and said, after he died, Rebbe Eliezer ben Durdia, you're welcome to the world to come.
And when the great sages heard this, they started crying. They're like, our whole lives we're trying to amass mitzvahs. We're trying to do whatever we can to get that kind of closeness with Hashem, and this guy got it with one mitzvah. There's some mitzvahs that a person does with so much intensity, with so much connection that it just removes all sin. It removes everything and brings a person to that closeness. Our sages of blessed memory said, the congregation of Israel is beloved through its voice as
it is written, let me hear your voice for your voice is sweet. This is in Song of Songs by King Solomon. And the Jewish people are also despised because of their voice. She has uttered against me with her voice, therefore I have hated her. The voice is something which is incredibly powerful, that it is able to convey something. What does it convey? What does words convey? It's an amazing thing if you investigate languages, what is it? When someone says, what is that? It's in Russian.
It means good. And when someone says, what does it mean? Means be blessed, be healthy. What did I say? It was a combination of sounds that came from my mouth that express a certain wish, a certain desire, a certain, when we use such an incredible power, such as our voice in a negative way, Hashem doesn't take it lightly because we can do such incredible things with that same voice. This is what King Solomon says in Proverbs. Life and death are in the hands of the tongue.
He says, and those who love it shall eat its fruit. The proper and fitting counsel for one who loves his tongue, that is the man who always wishes to speak, is to eat its fruits. That means not to engage in idle words, but in words of Torah, fostering peace, teaching many to do good deeds, teaching them what is good, keeping them far from evil, and causing them to be zealous for the truth. What's the proper use of those same, that same power of speech?
There is no limit, there is no limit to the mitzvahs that one can perform with his tongue. That's what it means in Proverbs, where King Solomon says that life is in the power of the tongue. We have unbelievable power, so imagine that you have with your words, with your lips, you can build someone's life. With your lips, you have the power to encourage someone, to guide someone, to counsel someone, to encourage someone, to believe in someone, and heaven forbid someone uses such a powerful
tool, and instead of building and giving life, it does the opposite. It can destroy someone's life. And this is what Hashem really gets upset about. It's not only the words that are slanderous about another person, it's also the fact that it has such a great power to do good, and he used it for the negative. You know, what's, you know, there's something, imagine someone tells you, I want to meet you in Austin. You say, okay, I'm going to take a road to Austin, how do I get there?
I take the I-10. Okay, great. Take the I-10, instead of going west, you go east. So it's not enough that you're not going the right direction, you're going the wrong direction. Now it's going to take you double as long, because it's not only that you're not going to where you need to go, you're going in the opposite direction. So there's one thing that I don't do a mitzvah, but you use that weapon to do a mitzvah to do evil, you're going in the opposite direction.
It's a terrible thing. So this concludes day number 136.

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