The פרשיות of תזריע -מצורע discuss the דינים of צרעת. The גמרא in מסכת ערכין notes:
על שבעה דברים נגעים באים
There are seven עבירות that cause צרעת, with לשון הרע being at the top of the list. The רמב”ם notes, that צרעת is the most severe form of טומאה, in that the afflicted person must go מחוץ למחנה. Even stepping foot in his own home will cause everything in the house to become טמא. He, therefore, must remain outside the walls of the מחנה.
From all the עבירות in the תורה, why is לשון הרע so severe? The חפץ חיים in the introduction to his Sefer quotes from the זוהר הקדוש:
“יש רוח אחד שעומד על בעלי לשון הרע….והוא שורה על התעוררות לשון הרע שאמרו אנשים. והוא נכנס למעלה. וגורם בהתעוררות ההיא של לשון הרע מוות והרס בעולם.”
“There is an impure spiritual force that is awakened when לשון הרע is spoken. And that force uses the negative words of לשון הרע to spread קטרוג on כלל ישראל in שמים, resulting, רחמנא ליצלן, in death and destruction.”
This actually is hinted to in the פסוק in תהילים
שטו בשמים פיהם ולשונם תיהלך בארץ
While one’s mouth is uttering words here in this world, they are actually directly affecting change in the heavens above. The נתיבות שלום” further expounds on this : Hashem is our loving Father. A father wants nothing more than to hear positive things about his children, and is greatly pained when hearing negative reports about them. The same is true with Hashem, who longs to hear only nice things about His children, כלל ישראל. We now understand why לשון הרע is so severe, resulting in terrible קטרוגים.
And conversely, there is nothing that brings Hashem more נחת רוח than כלל ישראל living in אחדות and speaking positively about each other. As תנא דבי אליהו states:
אמר להם הקב”ה לישראל: בני, מה אני מבקש מכם? אלא שתהיו אוהבים זה את זה, ומכבדים זה את זה.”
What ,then, can we do to counter the natural pull towards speaking לשון הרע? Chazal give us an עצה:
מה אומנתו של אדם בעולם הזה? ישים עצמו כאילם The best skill one can aquire in life, is the ability to remain silent. If we’re able to keep quite, even when we have the desire to speak up, we have gained ourselves a very powerful tool. Whether it’s refraining from joining a juicy gossip conversation, or refraining from responding to a negative comment spoken at us, learning to keep quite is an invaluable tool
And the more we train ourselves and utilize this tool, the more we’ll בס”ד be able to avoid לשון הרע, and bring Hashem much נחת רוח.
We’ll conclude with a story that highlights this point: A young בחור learning in מתיבתא תפארת ירושלים wanted to develop a קשר with the ראש ישיבה , Rav Dovid Feinstein זצ”ל. The boy decided to walk the ראש ישיבה on שבת from his home to the Yeshiva. He was surprised that the Rosh Yeshiva said nothing during their entire walk. The next week, the boy decided to prepare a few topics for discussion on the walk. But after attempting a few times to begin a conversation, the Rosh Yeshiva responded: ” There’s nothing better than a quiet walk, shared with good friends.”
By mastering the art of silence, we can merit a good life, both in this world, and the next.
Weekly Parsha Shiur 