Subject: Lashon Hara - The Evil Tongue
Date:    Thu, 11 Jun 1998 00:20:28 +0000
To:      "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>

 

To:            heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
From:          Michael Detwiler 
Subject:       Lashon Hara - The Evil Tongue


                              LASHON HARAH

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue" Proverbs 15:2

There are 31 commandments that relate to lashon harah in the Torah.  
Two in particular will be considered here. These mitzvoth specifically
address inappropriate speech or gossiping about another:

 "Thou shall not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people" 
Leviticus 19:16. 

Leviticus 25:17 says,  "You shall not wrong one another." This
has traditionally been interpreted as wronging a person with speech. It
includes any statement that will embarrass, insult or deceive a person,
or cause a person emotional pain or distress. 

The Chofetz Chayim, Israel Meyer Kagan wrote several books about lashon
harah  which all go into great detail.  The basics of the laws are
these:

 ---  "Wingdings" 

        a) You are not to say derogatory things about anyone whether 
             they are true or not.

        b)  You are not to imply derogatory things about anyone.

        c) You are not to listen to derogatory things about anyone, and 
            if you do, you're not to believe it.

To violate these Torah instructions is to become one who is known as
having an "evil tongue," or one who commits lashon harah. Tale bearing
is, essentially, any gossip. The Hebrew word for talebearer is
"rakheel" (Resh-Kaf-Yod-Lamed), which is related to a word
meaning trader or merchant. The idea is that a talebearer is like a
merchant whose merchandise is gossip or tale bearing. Some other terms
that bring more understanding to the solemnity of this subject are "avak
rechilut" or the dust of gossip and "avak lashon harah", the dust of an evil
tongue.  

Sometimes a violation of Torah can be committed in lashon harah,
without even saying anything specific about another.  The "dust" of
lashon harah could be a statement that you may make such as "well,
so-and-so said something about you, but I won't tell you because that
would be wrong," or "did you read their latest book?  Well, I suggest
that you do, and draw your own conclusion regarding how really sound they
are."  The worst offense is "motzi shem ra", or purposely spreading a bad
name or lie about another, with the intention of bringing injury. 

We who are attempting to walk in obedience to Torah must correct our
speech, change our habits, and learn to walk circumspectly before God 
and men.  Western Christianity has evolved into a system that strongly
preaches what one "believes," but that belief system is not necessarily
expressed in everyday living.  Early Biblical Judaism is contrary to this
life style.  It is not what one believed that was preached, but rather,
how he lives.  The words that proceed from his mouth show his belief
system. 


                          THE POWER OF SPEECH

Ancient Biblical Judaism, (the setting of the earliest Church) was
acutely aware of the power of speech and of the harm that can be done
through speech. The early sages and Rabbis note that the universe itself
was created through words.  

Bereshit 1, "and God said, let there be light
. . . and God said, let there be a firmament, and God said, let there be
water in the midst of it, and God said, let the earth bring forth grass
and herbs, etc."  

The Ruach Ha Kodesh teaches us in the Brit Chadisha a
parallel of this Torah truth as we see the examples of the fig tree that
was cursed by the words of Yeshua and it withered and died. "It is not
what goes into the mouth that defiles a man; but what comes out of the
mouth, this defiles a man."  Matthew 15:11.   

In addition, we read in the
Gospel of Mark 11:23-24 that there is power in our words that are
significant enough to even move mountains.  We are all familiar with the
warnings afforded by James, the half brother of Yeshua when he tells us
that "the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.  The tongue is so set
among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the
course of nature;