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;