Metzorah: Lashon Hara, Tzaraas, and the Spiritual Harm of Speech

Transcript

The ikker of the parsha is about the tzaraas, about the tzaraas. What is tzaraas? Tzaraas, we're to learn, is b'ikkur for lashon hara. A person speaks lashon hara, he gets tzaraas. It's interesting how many lavin, how many issurim the Torah was kovea to the issur of lashon hara. The Chofetz Chaim in Sefer, his p'sicha enumerates the many lavin and issurim one could be over for speaking lashon hara. Why does the Torah put such emphasis, so many issurim just for lashon hara? Why this aveirah more than other aveiros has a repetition and an emphasis of aveiros, lavin, issurim? We also see a tremendous onesh, a punishment, special for lashon hara. Why דווקא this issur? Why this aveirah has this special onesh? The emes, the Chofetz Chaim in his hakdamah and his p'sicha, there's two things to the Chofetz Chaim, Chofetz Chaim sefer: one is the hakdamah, the other one's the p'sicha. The Chofetz Chaim speaks reasons. Why the Torah was so machmir and put such emphasis on the inyan of lashon hara. So the Chofetz Chaim's pshicha says two ta'amim, and in his hakdamah he says two ta'amim. Starting over the tape, okay. Of course, the ikar of the parsha is the tzaraas. The tzaraas, we know, the tzaraas, we know, is the ikar, the aveirah of lashon hara. It comes out an interesting yesod, that lashon hara has many issurim and lavin, as well as a unique and special onesh which no other aveirah has. Why? Why does lashon hara have so many lavin, issurim, and a special onesh? So the Chofetz Chaim in his hakdamah gives two reasons, and the pshicha which follows the hakdamah gives two reasons. I'll begin with the pshicha's two reasons, because I want to elaborate on the two reasons that he says in the hakdamah. The first reason is, with a little introduction, he explains that many bad things come from lashon hara, and in the history of Klal Yisrael have befallen Klal Yisrael due to lashon hara. And he explains, first of all, because maybe it's bnei adam l'dei riv u'machlokes. It makes fights, makes tremendous wars between people. And then it also brings to Shevichas Damim. And then he explains through the history. He says, take a look. The chet of the Nachash, which brought death to the world, was because of lashon hara. Shediber lashon hara al HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The Nachash spoke lashon hara. You think there were baalei lashon hara? You think? People think lashon hara, a person speaks only on people. The Nachash, the first baal lashon hara, spoke against the Eibishter. And because of this, we know what happened. Harei shegaram l'giluy arayos, u'misah l'chol ha'olam. So it comes out that the first destructive thing in the world came from lashon hara. So too, he says, take a look at the Churban Habayis. The Churban Habayis came because of what? Of sinas chinam. Take a look at the meraglim. The meraglim was also all about lashon hara. Says the Chofetz Chaim, u'vifnei gadol hara'os shenimtzu b'middas hameguneh hazos. And he also brings—excuse me, I just wanted to finish quoting all the cases.

He brings down like this. He says also, Ki gam chachmei Yisrael shenehergu b'Yemei Shimon ben Shtach, the brother of Yannai HaMelech, hayah gam kein haydei rechilus. It was also that they were spoke against the chacham. You heard the chacham said about you, and then he brings the Tanna, Reb Elazar HaModa'i, shehayah gam kein sibah l'churban Beitar. It was also al yedei what? Rechilus. Watch your kilu alos, they said Ben Kuzbia. They said rechilus to Ben Kuzbia. B'kitzur, evil things in the history come about from what? From lashon hara. U'mitnei gadl hara'os shenimtza b'midah megunah zo, because of the terrible things that can come from it, gizderah haTorah, ... and that's why the Torah puts such emphasis: don't speak lashon hara. Don't speak terrible things, come from lashon hara. That's the first reason why the Torah puts such emphasis on the issur of lashon hara. V'od nireh taam pashut, says the Chofetz Chaim, another reason. Now here's your second reason. ... nimtza shek'ma'atim kolin ... Through lashon hara, you speak evil all the aveiros in the Torah. Anything you want, you can do wrong if you do lashon hara. Somehow connected to lashon hara, he says, you can be over all the aveiros. And if you want to know how, the whole pesicha of the Chofetz Chaim is, he shows you how if you do this you'll be over lo sa'amod al dam re'echa, and you'll be over harigah, and you'll be over so many. Therefore the Torah puts such a strong emphasis. That what? No lashon hara. And it's terrible punishment, lashon hara, because look at the terrible things that come from it. These are the two reasons that he brings in the psicha. In hakdamah, he brings two other reasons. And that's an example of how they're all connected, the whole mix. The whole psicha, the whole psicha is that. Here, lo yischalel shem Kodshi. Why? Ach shem is a taiva. Here, vav. Vav, here, psicha, lavin vav. You'll be over lo yischalel shem Kodshi. Why? Because you're doing an aveirah without having any personal enjoyment from it. What's your enjoyment? What do you have from it? Speak lashon hara. What do you gain something from it? When you're over an aveirah without having personal gain from it, you're over chilul Hashem, lo yischalel shem Kodshi. People don't know this. To do an aveirah, it has to be at least justified that you have something from it. If not, you're not just doing aveiros against Hashem. Many times you speak lashon hara, that's all it is. You just don't care. Lashon hara. Again, the famous joke, of course, is that a guy once said, from all the shivim lashon, all the seventy languages, he loves lashon hara the best. That's the most useful. He enjoys that one the best of all. One says, the Chofetz Chaim tells us that you could be over lo yischalel also in case you don't enjoy it. Some people just talk, they have nothing better to do. Whatever the guy talks lashon hara, why not? Why not? Instead of saying, why not say a good thing about a guy, why not say a bad thing? A lot of people are like that. They gain nothing from it. You want another example? I'll tell you the one before. Here, heshamer lecha pen tishkach Hashem Elokecha. Why? Because if a person has gaivah, you're over this issur. And a lot of times, lashon hara is because of gaivah. Oh, you're so big. I spoke about it last week. To eis, sapachas, and baheres. We have this eis, sapachas, and baheres. So I told you last week, what are these three types of tzaraas? Eis means to lift high. Sapachas means to connect, to be a connection. And baheres is bohir, clear. I explained that there's many people speak Lashon Hara because of kaas and ruach. They're big baalei gaivah, so Hashem gives them tzaaras. Many people speak Lashon Hara because they're around the people and they want to connect to the group, to the chevra. They want to be part of the gang, the guys. You know, you don't want to be an outcast. Speak Lashon Hara, that's sapachas. And baheres, because you think you know it all. You think you know, I know this guy. Who do you know? How do you know what's going on in that person's life? And we said an example, a beautiful example. A person once by levayah went in to buy a plant. During the levayah, went to buy a plant. You know, Yushalayim used to go in the streets with the aron to the beis hakvaros, and he passed by a plant store and bought a plant. So Rabbi Levine said, I have to tell him. He said, You buy a plant for your house? He came and he told him that, I have to tell you, you're not going to do that.

With your feelings for the meis, he says, Rebbe, you don't understand what happened. I actually not buying it for my house. There's a choleh in the hospital, a sick person that has leprosy, and the law is they got to burn all his clothing and the objects because it's contagious. Not the leprosy, it's the Torah. Hagam, we spoke last week, many Rishonim hold that the leprosy of the Torah is also contagious. It's interesting, and it's very possible that maybe the name leprosy that we have for the machlah that we find in Africa, that went over to Eretz Yisrael during the early 1930s, full of leprosy in those days, in the '30s. Rabbi Levine used to go visit the lepers, and he didn't care, even though it was contagious. That's the whole story of Rabbi Levine. He would go and visit all the lepers. Could be it's a borrowed name from the Torah, because Rishonim held tzaraas is also a machlah that's back, it's a contagious disease. That's neither here nor there. The point is that they wanted to burn all his objects. So the doctor said that it has to be done that way. So he thought to just plead, who used to visit this person, pleaded, you know, the tefillin, the tefillin, maybe we could save the tefillin. He said, No, but the law, it's contagious. So he said, Please, it's a holy thing, the Ribbono Shel Olam. And he started pleading with the doctor. The doctor listened to me. You know, law is the law, but if you want, don't let me see it. Try to hide it. Get yourself a plant, hide it under the plant in the earth, and then you'll sneak it out of the hospital, and then I won't know from it. So he bought a plant to save the tefillin. To hold this in story now, right? It's not that he went to buy a plant for his house in the Lower East Side. Rabbi Levine said, Could you imagine all my life, if I wouldn't have asked him what I would be thinking? I'd be thinking, Oh, this guy bought a plant in the Lower East Side. I didn't know the fact. But here, sometimes, you don't know the fact. God has taught an interesting maaseh of a Shabbos. True or not, I don't know, but that's what they say over there. Rav Moshe Feinstein once had two things of milk, two containers of milk in front of him. That's the famous maiseh. I don't know if it's true, but they say he had two containers of milk in front of him. Kids, he picked up one, and he was ready to pour, and he looked at it and then he put it down. He took the other one and he started to pour. So everybody was saying, Oh, mistama this company of the milk is not kosher, and this company is, yeah, kosher. And it started getting word getting around, the kosher, not kosher. Okay. Kids, so what happened? What happened was that the company that the word went out that their thing is not kosher, Rav Moshe didn't want to drink it, came to tell him. What do you mean? We'll fix, tell us, what's the problem? Tell me. I said, What are you talking about? I picked it up, it was empty and spoiled. You know, I saw, you know, something was empty, spoiled. Whatever the story was, whatever it was, was nothing there to him to drink. So that's why he put it down. That's the whole story. You know, if you knew the story, you'd realize the whole thing is shtus. Why does the guy speak lashon hara? He knows. You know, he knows. He really knows. Who says he knows? This chabaysa is boyer. I even said pshat, I don't know if I remember if I told you this also, the nekudah. Imaleh amok. Teras is also that it's amok, that it's deep. Why amok? The emes is that teras is not here, that teras is deep. It's a deep machlokes. Teras is amok. It's not—people look, you have teras on his hand. No, no, you have teras in his heart. It's amok. It's a lot deeper than just what you see here. Kids, I can learn with you the whole inyan of teras, how it, how it, let's call, connects back to the... That's not the point right here in this shiur. The point of today's shiur is to discuss lashon hara, and I want you to know, agav. That the Rambam speaks out all these inyanim in Hilchos Lashon Hara, gasus ruach and the chevra. The Rambam, he speaks about it. Here, let me show you the Rambam. I mean, it's mamish the vort I told you last week, in the end of Hilchos De'os. Where's the Rambam's source? Here. The Rambam speaks all these things. Here, let me show you the Rambam. Here. The Rambam says like this. Here. Kol hachoimer hu d'Adam harashaim hakipshin, shemedabrim b'gadlus v'niflaos. They speak big things, you know, this guy's a... guy's niflaos. Speaking big, you know, guys... niflaos. What I mean, you speak lofty, very... you hold of yourself, you talk hard, this guy, you put the other guy down. Lefichach ra'ui l'mi sherotze l'chaven orchosav, lisrachek mishivasam. You should stay away from such people. You see that this is what I'm explaining to you, is the problems that bring about lashon hara. One is a gaiva problem, the other one is a chevra problem. That's what the Rambam says. You should stay away from them. This is the inyan of lashon hara. Okay. What am I trying to bring out l'gabei the etzem din of lashon hara? So we have these two reasons from the Chofetz Chaim. The first reason is...

A terrible thing stemmed from lashon hara, disasters stemmed from lashon hara. And the second reason is because many aveiros, one is over about lashon hara, around lashon hara, coming from lashon hara. Therefore the Torah put a tremendous emphasis on lashon hara, and it gave it a special inyan. In the hakdamah, the Chofetz Chaim, zecher tzaddik v'kadosh livrachah, gives two other reasons why the Torah put such an emphasis on the issur of lashon hara. Says the Chofetz Chaim like this: V'nirah pashut, shehaTam shechmirah haTorah kol kach b'zeh ha'avon, mipnei sheme'orer b'zeh harbeh es hamekatrig hagadol al Klal Yisrael. You bring about a kitrug on Klal Yisrael. You talk against Jews, you bring kitrug on Klal Yisrael. The Ribono Shel Olam says, What? Yeah, he did this. Now, I want to discuss: what does it mean that you're me'orer kitrug and the Ribono Shel Olam doesn't know? You mean if I said it, then it's—Chaim David said about Beryl that he spoke—so what? The Ribono Shel Olam knows it. How is that me'orer the kitrug on Klal Yisrael? And he speaks about mamash the whole inyan. He says like this. He says that lashon hara, shehu mesaper, is oleh keneged kisei hakavod. It goes all the way to the kisei hakavod, and it comes out that the baal lashon hara is destroying Klal Yisrael. You understand that? I mean, if he did it, the Ribono Shel Olam knows he did it. How are you, by speaking lashon hara, destroying Klal Yisrael? So, boys, I want to show you an interesting Gemara. The Gemara says, אמר ר' שמעון בן לוי, וכי פנים משמד רבי יוסי, לעולם אל יפתח אדם פיו לשטן. You shouldn't open up your mouth to the Satan, your tes amud aleph in Brachos. ואמר רבי יוסי, said Rabbi Yosi, מאי קרא? Where do we know this from? שנאמר, כמעט כסדום היינו. Yeshayah says, Oh, we were almost like Sodom. מאי אהדר ליה נביא? So what does the navi answer back? שמעו דבר ה' קציני סדום. You are Sodom. You spoke out that you're almost like Sodom? Guess what? You are Sodom. ואל תפתח פה לשטן. Don't talk and give the Satan room to catch you. Interesting piece of Gemara, you hear? I want to tell you something. It's paskened in Shulchan Aruch. Shulchan Aruch paskens this halacha, you hear? Halacha, you think it's a ma'aseh. Halacha l'maaseh. Halacha says like this: לא יאמר אדם. A person should not say, נפרעתי כפי מעשי. I got punished according to my actions, which means a person had an aveilus in his house. He shouldn't say, Yeah, the way I behaved, that's how I got punished. Why? שאל יפתח פיו לשטן. You're not allowed to be pose'ach peh l'Satan, you hear? You know this halacha? You know such halacha? Are you with me? I see you're not writing. Is there any reason why you're not writing? You lost? I lost you something? Okay. There is nothing that I enjoy more, and that I have more yishmach and tachlis. I feel my point here is just to teach the divrei Torah. I'm trying to give the olam an insight. Big deal. Big deal, so you spoke lashon hara a lot. So what? Why do you care what that guy says? I always say that to people. Why do you care? Why do you care? He said it. Who is he? What is he? Is what he said—could he harm you in any way? No. If he could harm you, okay, I can hear where it's bothering you. But if he can't harm you, who cares? Well, what's the difference? And still we see that the Torah makes such a big deal. You hear so many other—lashon hara, lashon hara, lashon hara, lashon hara. So what? What's the difference? And not only that, a special onesh, so to speak, went out of its way to create an onesh. Don't you dare speak lashon hara. I'm going to give you this tzaraas, which is frightening. Chazal even say that when they heard the parashah of tzaraas, they began to cry.

It was frightening to them. But that was a good thing. What, tzaraas? Yeah. I know, that's a different warning. Wasn't it terrible? You're right, but you see that it's frightening a disease. And the question is, why this aveirah more than other aveiros has its own special, unique disease? Isn't it more frightening that he doesn't give it? You're not talking on the same point that I'm talking. You're right, that's the other angle of it. It's a good thing, I'm not saying. But you're asking on the Chazal. Yeah, of course it's scary. Let me tell you something. No one ever came to say, Oh, cancer is a good thing because... What does that mean? No, but nobody makes any connection with it. Okay, you're talking now from a ruchniyusdike point of view. You're right, but it's a scary disease. And the question is, why would the Torah, for something so minute, so to speak, I spoke against, and so what? Why is it so frightening? You're asking me why my mind is wandering, because I can't relate to what you're saying. I know it's terrible. What's the rationalization why it's terrible? You ready? You ready? Why do people think it's not? What's the big deal? No, I'm trying to make a joke. I'm trying to show you something. You're missing my point. You're missing my point. I'm trying to bring out a point. It didn't hurt you in any way. Why do you care what I just said? How can it bother you? What was the big deal in it? I don't understand why you say, Who wouldn't think it's bothersome? I don't say it bothers you. Some guy, but think about it. What did you lose from it? Nothing happened to you. What happened? Leave me out of this. Go ahead, teach everybody. I don't want to stop your class. No, now I'm interested. I'm starting to get interested. This is a psychological issue we have here. You're so bothered by a guy saying behind your back, your sack. Why wouldn't I be bothered? Big deal. You don't even know about it. You don't even know about it. What's the big deal? What's, you don't even know about it? Everybody's concerned what the rest of the world... Again, but if you don't know about it, I'll tell you. When I was in yeshiva, Staten Island. Maybe I shouldn't say it's Lashon Hara on the yeshiva, but it's not really their fault. There was locusts. There was locusts. I just slipped. I can't—oh, by the way, forget what I just said, that it was Staten Island. Yeah, you could stop. Good story. Listen carefully. There was locusts. Every 17, 18 years, locusts come. They have locusts in Staten Island. There's locusts. Anybody who lives in Staten Island knows every 17 years there's locusts. Wherever you walk, wherever you step, there's locusts all over the place. Yeah? Every 17 years. Locusts. Every 17 years. Flying cockroaches, you hear? And on a regular basis. Every 17 years in Staten Island. You live in America? Okay, so go find out from the Staten Islanders. Every 17, 18 years. It's a fact. Every 17, 18 years they have locusts. Kids, you walk around the yeshiva, it's just, you step on top of them because there's nothing you can do. They just walk on them. Kids are—in my times, they used to put out a bowl of fruit soup. It was easy to make. You'd throw in all the canned stuff and you'd have fruit soup. Kids at my place would leave it out, and the locusts would go inside. And then they would put it out, and then you would have to go and take the locusts out of the fruit soup, the bowl, and then kids—I see the older guys in yeshiva taking out the locusts, and they're eating the soup, the fruit soup. I said to him, I said, I don't understand. I told one of the guys, How could you eat this? I don't get it. I mean, it doesn't bother you. He told me a word which will stay with me for the rest of my life. It's such a [unclear] insight in life. He said to me, What you don't know doesn't hurt. You don't know about it. Why do you have to sit there and think the locusts? They take the locusts. I said, the only guys come, they take the locusts out. Nobody eats. No one knows. No one knows that the locusts was there in the first place. Nothing will happen to you. So what's the thing? If you think about it, the locusts inside, don't know about it, it won't bother you. [Unclear] in life, what you don't know doesn't hurt. You'll be surprised upside when you go to a restaurant. Believe me, if you knew, you wouldn't eat. People go and they eat and they enjoy. And you know what the answer is? Because what you don't know doesn't hurt you. That's the bottom line. Nothing, as long as it's healthy, as far as the bacteria and stuff, there's no problem. You're laughing. You know the steak. You're guessing at what I'm thinking. I wasn't referring to you. I'm referring to the other guys.

There's a, you know, the steak that you buy in the restaurant. You have to thank the Hashem if it only fell four times to the floor instead of five times. You know, there's a guy who once came by Chasan with a plate of food. I heard this from relatives of mine. Very nice story. He was coming with a plate of food, you hear, and some guy went with a fork to try to get from the waiter's hand by the chasan. So the waiter tells him, Kisaher, what do you want? You want to fall a fourth time, a fifth time? He already fell three, four times, the kid. You want to fall again a fifth time? What do you want? The point being, I say, I try to make jest, but I mean a point. The truth is, no one really gets hurt. If you're going to speak about a guy, nothing. Doesn't mean anything. You're right, if he ruins a shidduch, it's a problem. If he ruins his business, it's a problem. But if he stomps on your foot, chaim David, went, who cares? What does that have to do with you? Especially when you don't know about it. You don't even know about it. Or, marketer, you hear? You hear? You hit your friend in hiding. Don't know about it. Don't know about it. You know about it because you defend yourself. It's not a problem. You don't know about it. I'm a mature person. I'm a mature person. I'm a mature person, couldn't care less. Let me tell you something. At my stage, where I'm sitting, if any of these things bother you, don't go into my field, because that's what it is. Any guy who does or accomplishes in this world has people talking against him, and he doesn't pay attention to it. Doesn't mean anything. Doesn't mean anything. A person who is healthy knows, big deal. I'll tell you another story. Another story. I'll tell you another story. A guy once went, yeah, and said the following: When I was young, it bothered me what everybody spoke about me. It bothered me. He spoke about me. It bothered me. I got a little older, got mature, didn't bother me so much what people are speaking about me. When I got even a little older, you know what I realized? No one's speaking about me. I wished they were speaking about me. They're not speaking about me. Nobody's really talking that much about you. So the little bit that they're talking, and you don't even know about it, that's the horror of makireiu baseiser. You got to give a special disease chorus. Let me tell you something. Anybody who's matured really doesn't care what other people... You're healthy. You know where it comes from? A person has low self-esteem, little self-esteem, that he projects himself according to the way others talk about him. But if you know who you are, and you know you're worth, nebach on the poor guy. You know the Chazon Ish writes in Maseches Shabbos a tremendous yesod. He says like this: A person who's crazy, and he walks over to you, and he starts telling you, screaming at you, You're crazy, guy. What do you think? So who cares what? He's crazy, right? That's what you say. He's crazy. Would it bother you if a dog came over and started barking? What do you say? How dare you bark at me? It's a dog, right? He's crazy. This guy's crazy, and this is a dog. What happens if a guy talks against you because he has bad middot? He's also crazy. He has choleh hamiddot. He's sick on the middot. He's jealous. He has kinah. The tools of sickness. Chazonish understood, so he spoke against you. Why do you care what he said? He's sick. He's a sick person. You know that you're doing the right thing. It shouldn't bother you. That's my question. My question is not why the recipient would doubt it. I understand this concept of self-esteem, but it's easy to understand that that person is sick and it's a problem, and it's a bad middah. So why would I think it's not such a bad middah? I know it's a bad middah. What I'm trying to say is, how come this bad middah over any other bad middah? I don't see—there are a lot of bad middos. If you're talking about middos, that's where your discussion is. There's a whole discussion of bad middos, not even bring tzaras. Why does this bad middah bring tzaras? Ella, because you really hurt the guy. No, you didn't. Nothing happened. So we see from here that we have to somehow use our, so to speak, imagination to figure out how speaking against somebody leads to catastrophic things, that the Torah has to go out of its way and say, you know something, you have to have many lavim for this, many issurim. You know something, you need that you should get a tremendous punishment called tzaras. The Chofetz Chaim begins, wait a second. Throughout the history, it brought about catastrophic things. That's the first thing he—

And then he says, you can be oiver many issurim. The second thing that he says. And then in the hakdamah he says that it brings about tikun Klal Yisroel. Stop. Now I have to slow down. Now I have to put pause. How does it bring tikun? Tikun? What do you mean? If I say the Chaim did this aveirah, it brings a kitrug on Klal Yisroel. Dovid did this, it brings a kitrug on Klal Yisroel. What does it mean? So I'm showing you, kitrug means, right, you know that this is kitrug in Shamayim against Klal Yisroel. So I'm showing you that the Gemara says something interesting. By merely saying, Kisdoyim hayinu, like Sdom, that's how bad it was, we became, the Ribono Shel Olam says, You are Sdom. ... I use bad as doim or not as bad? What do you mean, Kisdoyim hayinu? You said the words, I'm like Sdom. The Ribono Shel Olam says, Not like, yes, Sdom. You are Sdom because ... you're not allowed to talk like that. And the halacha brings it down. You're not allowed to even say, I got what I deserve. Lo yomar adam. A person should not say, ... siman shin ayin vav, halacha beis, lo yomar adam, lo nifrasi kefi ma'asai. I did not get punished according to my actions. O kiyotzei bedvarim eilu. Why? Because then it's al tiptoh pelel ... The Ribono Shel Olam says, You know something? He deserves a little more. He did a little more aveiros, I'll give him a little more. What do we see? A tremendous koach, a tremendous strength to a person's words. Unbelievable thing. Yeah? Al tiptoh peh. You were supposed to sit here. Is that okay with you? Yeah. Okay, you'll be all right? Okay. Let me show you a Gemara Megillah. The Gemara Megillah says like this. Al tihei birchas hedyot kalah b'einecha. Gemara Megillah says, tes-vav amud aleph, al tehei birchas hedyot kalah b'einecha. Who's a hedyot? Who gives you a bracha? Don't make light of it. It's a big thing. Sharei shnei gedolei hador birchum shnei hedyotos. Two gedolim got a bracha from two nobodies, v'niskaymu בהם, and the bracha came about. V'eilu hein: Dovid and Daniel. Dovid got a bracha from a nobody, and Daniel got a bracha from a nobody. What? Dovid, d'birchei Arona. Arona, when the ... Hagoyrim, when they brought the aron, came a bracha, vayomer Arona la-melech, ... bracha was niskayem in Dovid HaMelech, Arona's bracha. What about Daniel? Daniel got a bracha from Daryavesh, d'chsiv, Elakachti anas plachlei, the Rabbeinu ... that you bowed down to, and he gave him a bracha, so it was niskayem in Daniel. You hear? Dovid's bracha came about, and Daniel's bracha. Okay. Says Reb Eliezer, the opposite is also true. By the way, I want to tell you a cute story about ... the maaseh of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva, you know him, like I say it over all the time, it's a beautiful story. Someone once walked over to Rabbi Akiva Eiger and asked him for a bracha. So Rabbi Akiva Eiger said, I don't give brachas. I'm not a rebel. I don't give brachos. So the person said back, but the Gemara says, Al tehi birchas hedyot kalah b'einecha. The bracha of a simple person should not be—why are you making nothing out of a bracha? Then the guy realized, one second, I'm calling Rabbi Akiva Eiger a hedyot. What am I doing? She said, What I meant to say was, to give a hedyot a bracha should not be kalah b'einecha. Rabbi Akiva Eiger said, Stop, stop, stop. Better I should be a hedyot all my life. You don't learn wrong pshat in the Gemara. Don't try to, you know, squeeze the Gemara wrongly. I'll stay the hedyot. Don't learn the wrong pshat in the Gemara. It means to give—no, it means that from a hedyot. It means a hedyot shouldn't be—who gives a bracha to a—should not be kalah b'einecha. You call me a hedyot, I'll take it. Don't worry. Don't learn wrong pshat in the Gemara. Here the Gemara says that the opposite is also true. What's the opposite? Amar Rabbi Elazar amar Rabbi Chanina, Al tihi killas hedyot kalah b'einecha. The klalah of a hedyot should not be kalah b'einecha. Why? Avimelech. Avimelech couldn't get more of a hedyot, and by the way, a hedyot is a step up for him. He was actually worse than a hedyot. He was melech.

We know what Achav Melech was, right? You're right. True, he wasn't like Paro, but he was Achav Melech. He told Sarah, Hinei hu lachaksus einayim, v'niskaymah bah b'Zarah, v'hi ki zakeh Yitzchak v'atichena einav. He said, I'll give you money to cover your eyes. To cover your eyes. Meaning, you're upset at me for taking you, I kidnapped you, so I'm going to give you money as a cover-up money. Italian phrase, k'sus einayim, cover-up, Italian. Mafyosa. Okay. So because they used that lashon, said her children, there was this kisui einayim. Yitzchak became blind. He used the lashon of cover-up, einayim, of the eyes. Niskaymah b'Sarah. How? Yitzchak. Unbelievable. Yitzchak became blind because of this, v'atichena einav, he became blind. Unbelievable Gemara, you hear? Killas hedyot also. Now let's take a cheshbon. Did he mean to curse? He didn't even mean to curse. He did not even mean to curse her. He just said k'sus einayim, to cover the eyes, cover-up money. And because of that, Yitzchak turned blind. Al tihe killas hedyot. Now, how does that work? Al tikal pelosa, and to the extent that a rasha could tell you something, and if not even meant as a curse, and those words will bring about a curse on the children. That's not an unbelievable thing to you? When you read the Gemara, it doesn't say, Hey, wait a minute, what are you saying? How is a rasha's word that they said something which didn't even mean to curse you, but it had an imprecation which could mean curse? And therefore the children are cursed. HaBais HaChinuch in mitzvah reish lamed aleph discusses this whole inyan, and this very important thing to learn. I think it's very, very crucial, very important that you should learn it, and I'll read it with you a little bit. Halacha is, a mitzvah in the Torah, you're not allowed to curse a Jew, bein ish uvein isha. And even if the shomea, the listener, didn't hear it, it doesn't make a difference. Like it says, lo sekalel cheresh, means he can't even hear it. U'vaha peirush, mi she'eino shomea kelalah. Even if he doesn't know that you cursed him, you're not allowed to curse another Jew. Now, says the Chinuch, why? What's the big deal? Who are you? You spoke, so you cursed him. Who are you? Who cares what you say? Says the Chinuch, af al pi she'ein banu koach ladaas be'eize inyan tinuch haklalah b'mekulal, even though we can't know how the klalah will come about to this person, ve'eize koach b'dibur l'haviah eilav, and how does a person have the power in his mouth to make damage to another person? Yadanu derech klal mikol bnei olam shechosheshin liklalos. We see that the world does care about klalos. Even goyim, don't curse me. Who cares? Says the Chinuch, a beautiful Chinuch. You see that the bottom line is, the world is upset about klalos. So obviously there is something to a curse. You know, every goy, What are you cursing me for? What do you care? He'll kill you for it, right? Don't curse me. Why? What does he care? He doesn't even believe in God. Most of these people are atheists. There's something to a curse. There's something to a curse, you hear? You're listening to a chinuch. It's a beautiful chinuch. He says, look at the world. The world, you see, is careful about cursing. Obviously, they don't do religion. What's wrong with cursing? Even a guy. Even if he's a hedyot, even if he's a hedyot, something will have effect on the person who's getting the curse. And according to my understanding, if this is the way people talk, we have to say that there is something here in a curse, and this is the shoresh of this mitzvah. Hashem doesn't want us to hurt the other guy. And therefore, the same way you're not allowed to hurt him in action, you're not allowed to hurt him with dibur. Okay, אין יזלמו זכרם לברכה, ברית כרותה לשפתיים. The lips have something powerful to them. כלומר, שיש כוח בדברי פה.

The words of a person have special power. You know that you have a lot of powers. I once had a guy that came to me, and he told me he has a very big problem. I'll tell you the truth, I was waiting to hear family, shidduch, mais... Test me, I have special powers. He told me, I have special powers. First I thought he was joking. Then I see he's going on and on, and he's telling me, yes, I have special powers, that when I walk and I look at people, they fall down. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm thinking, what? What are you saying? Either I'm crazy or somebody's crazy here. Maybe I don't hear you right. He keeps, stop telling me that he says things and he does things. You imagine, I obviously told him to go see the first therapist that he can find, the first psychiatrist. But if someone came and said, I have special powers, what are they? My tongue. We all know that mother-in-laws have special powers with their tongue, and wives when they get angry, they also have special powers in their tongue. But kol adam, every person has a special power in his tongue. You know that's racha limeinu spoke. You know, if you don't give me children, I'm going to die. Yankiv Avinu got angry at her. L'maaseh Yaakov Avinu got punished. That's how you answer. People who are in pain, she's in pain that she doesn't have children. Why did Yankiv Avinu, the bechirah of this, respond? Why did he respond? You don't think he was able to do what we all do on a constant basis, close our mouths and say, I hear. What? No. What do you do when you're married and the wife gets an attack? You say, I hear, right? Yankiv couldn't do that, and the Torah says he held pitutei nashim. She spoke things she wasn't allowed to say. Bris kerusah l'sfasayim. Bris kerusah l'sfasayim. The words that a person says has a tremendous effect. Tell me, when did she die? At birth. Havah li banim, v'im ayin, meisah anochi. Isn't that interesting? Rachel imeinu spoke. Bring me children, if not I'll die. She died when she had children. It's interesting. Bris kerusah l'sfasayim. You got to be very careful what you say. You get angry, watch your tongue. Don't say things. Got to be careful. This is what he's saying. Kilomar, sheyesh koach... Any continues the chiddush. The efshar lomar, lofi aniyus daateinu, ki b'hiyos hanefesh hamedaberes b'adam chelek elyoni. You know what it has to do with? Because a person's talk is also a tremendous ruchniyusdike thing. It's not a simple thing that a person is able to talk. Like it says, Vayipach b'apav nishmas chayim, leruach mema'alah, the famous Targum. Hashem blew into a person his nishmas ruach chayim, and the Zohar says, what is that? Godliness. He blew... So says the Tanya, what's that ability? That's the ability to talk. Nishmas ruach chayim is the ability to talk. So we see that the talk, a person's words, have tremendous power. Nosen koach rav lif'ol, afilu b'ma shehu chutz mimenu. It has tremendous capability and strength to bring about things, you hear? The ma shehu chutz, which has nothing to do with the person himself. V'al kein yodanu, v'nirah tamid, ki lefi chashivus nefesh ha'adam u'zekhus bneiyonim k'nefesh hatzaddikim v'chasidim, yimardu ve'eim lifol. How come when a tzaddik talks, it happens? Tzaddik gozer, HaKadosh Baruch Hu mekayem. Why? Says the Chinuch, beautiful, because since the nefesh of this person is closer to the Ribono Shel Olam, and his dibur is coming from his nefesh, which is a chelek of the Ribono Shel Olam, so what he says comes about. He has special powers. The closer the person is to the Ribono Shel Olam, the more power and strength he has in what? In his talk. You think I'm telling you this from some kind of Kabbalistic sefer. It's the Chinuch. Right here. The Chinuch. Right here. Look, I'm not cheating. It's right here. Everybody look. Chinuch.

Yes, it's unbelievable. ... That's how we understand what we see. Depending on the chashivus nefesh ha'adam, depending on the chashivus of the person and how he's misdabek. Tzadikim, chassidim, yemarei d'breim lifol b'chol ma sheyidabru eilam. V'zeh davar yadua ... This is a known thing, v'yodei daas u'mevinei mada. V'efshar lomar od. And then he says the second reason, that it has to do with riv, it has to do with fighting, because if a person curses another person, brings about fight. We'll talk about this a little bit later. V'al kol panim, this is what the Chinuch explains in the power of speech. Power of speech, mimeila. This is what it means that it's mekatrig on Klal Yisroel. Yes, your words have a tremendous power, the power of speech. You know, there's an expression, the power of speech. Little do they know that there is a power, and that power, says the Chofetz Chaim over here, is lekatrig on Yisroel. Al tiptach peh l'Satan. What you say will bring about bad things. Don't say he did this. Oh, be careful. And like the Chofetz Chaim says, it goes all the way to Kisei HaKavod. It goes all the way to the Kisei HaKavod. Unbelievable. There's another reason that the Chofetz Chaim brings. Chofetz Chaim says that if a person speaks lashon hara, he's metamteim. He destroys his dibur, and that same mouth, and that same dibur is going to be used, the dvarim shebikdushah, to speak to the Ribono Shel Olam. You know, there's something called bad breath. A person has bad breath, no one's able to talk to the guy, right? There's such a thing called spiritual bad breath. A person is metamtem his lev—I'm sorry, his peh, excuse me, his peh—timtum hapeh through lashon hara and rechilus, says the Chofetz Chaim, brings about that the sefar itself cannot be spoken to the Ribono Shel Olam, cannot say divrei kedushah. It's a destruction of a person's koach hadibur. I'd like to just quote you one line from the Chofetz Chaim about this. Says the Chofetz Chaim, Haloi nireh ba'alil. We see clearly from the Zohar that he quotes, Shekol divrei haTorah u'tefillah shelanu, heim omdim b'avir haShamayim. They're stuck, they're frozen in the heavens, ve'einam olim l'maalah. They won't go up to the Ribono Shel Olam if our dibur is not pure from the issurim that we speak lashon hara from. That's why another reason the Torah puts such emphasis and such a very strong chumrahdikah oinesh for speaking lashon hara. Then the Chofetz Chaim also says another yesod, which is very interesting, another reason. He says because in one word you can be over an issur. Could you imagine how many issurim a person gets for just a few words? All he has to do is talk a little lashon hara, and he packed up a list of aveiros like you've never seen. You know, people don't realize, if you think about it, you come up to Shamayim, yeah, a pretty good guy, and all of a sudden you take a look and you see that the cheshbon of the aveiros is loaded. Clouted is this a what? How did I rake up such a bill? And the answer is every word of lashon hara. You don't realize how many words of lashon hara a person speaks by just saying a few things about another guy, make a cheshbon. How many words and words and words of issurim you have. Therefore, he says the Torah put a special emphasis on lashon hara, because in a few words can be over many issurim. In a few words can be over many. This is what the Chofetz Chaim brings four times, why the Torah puts emphasis and such a strong hagasha about the issur of lashon hara. Just to repeat it quickly, one is because of all the terrible things that come from it. It causes catastrophes and calamities and klal Yisrael throughout the doros. The second reason is because of all the many aveiros that it leads to, that are surrounded the issur of lashon hara, like we see in the pesichah, all the lavin that he quotes. The other two reasons are: one is because it's mekatrig. Another reason is because your words need to be kadosh, it needs to be pure, so that you're able to go to the Shamayim and be addressed by the Ribbono Shel Olam, and you won't have that.

And the worst reason is because with few words you could be over so many issurim. Look how much you're racking up issurim. Therefore the Torah put a tremendous scare: don't speak lashon hara. You'll even get tzaraas if you speak lashon hara. Now, I want to go now a little deeper, a little bit deeper. The Chinuch tells us that one of the reasons why klalah is no good, we just spoke, because a person's words have tremendous effects on other people. But then he says another reason. The extra loimar oid, there's another reason that we could say here. Ki ha'inyan l'hastis bein bnei adam. It's very important that there should not be fighting between people, vlihyos beineihem shalom, there should be peace between them. Ki oif ha'shamayim yoleich es hakol. So what's going to happen? You curse somebody, don't think it's going to be secret. Nothing's a secret. Nothing ever remains secret. Ki oif ha'shamayim yoleich es hakol. It's a very famous pasuk. The bird carries the information, which means anything you say in secret will be public, so be careful. V'ulai yavli davar hamekalbaz u'mishakero, it's going to come to the ear of the person you cursed, and it's going to cause what? Machlokes. So maybe we can say that that's the same reason by lashon hara. True, you spoke lashon hara in private. There's no such thing as private, because once you tell one person, it's not private anymore. You know they say, what are the three quickest ways of communication? Telephone, telegram, and tell a woman. Those are the three fastest forms of... You want something to get out? The three quickest ways of communication: telephone. Today you have to change around. It will be internet and email, whatever it is. But in the old days, that's what it was: telephone, telegram, tell a woman. Al kol panim, there's no such thing as speak. You tell a person secrets. You know, there's a very famous klal. You want somebody to tell over something to everybody, tell him not to tell anybody. It's a secret. You want to give a secret? Be sure that because he says, everybody's going to know about it the next day. So this is the problem. A person speaks lashon hara, it might not be in private. It might be that the guy will hear about it, and that's some thinking. And that's maybe what the Chofetz Chaim himself, when he begins, he says, What's the problem? Ki hu meivi es bnei adam lidei riv u'machlokes. It brings machlokes, meaning even if you talk in private, there's no such thing as private. Eventually what's going to happen? It's going to come out in public, and there's going to be fighting. And the worst thing is when there's pirud, sinas Yisrael, and fighting among Klal Yisrael. Now, I want to tell you a ma'aseh, a pshat, lefi zeh, that I once saw, and I think it's beautiful, it's mamash beautiful. I remember when I saw it, I had such a ta'anug from it, such enjoyment from it. You hear? I'm trying to give another reason, that what's the reason that it's such a bad thing to have lashon hara in private? It's private! And the answer is what? There's no such thing as private, and it's going to turn into machlokes, and whatever you say, even if you meant good and said good things, in the end there's going to be machlokes anyway, because the person heard it bad, he meant it. Like I told you the story, I gave a book to somebody. By the way, he got insulted. Why? Because he has a child, a kid, that still doesn't have children even though she's married for two years. But I gave him a sefer about childhood. I think I know that he even had a daughter. I don't know nothing. People are overly sensitive. Even when you say the right thing, they get insulted and angry, and there's fighting. Kol shekein, kol shekein, kavachomer, ben bnei, kavachomer, you say bad things, they're not. It's going to get out, and there's going to be machlokes. Let me tell you over a amazing, amazing shtickel that I once saw. There's a very famous medrash that everybody knows. This is the medrash that everybody begins with when they talk about the issur of lashon hara. It's a medrash in Vayikra, in this week's parsha, that there was a rochel, a peddler, that he was going around Tzipori, says the medrash, the cities of Tzipori, and he was asking, Who wants life? He was peddling life. Yep, here it is. Maaseh b'rochel echad shehaya machriz ba'ayaros הסמוכות לציפורי. You hear? He was going near Tzipori, v'haya machriz, and he was announcing, Man ba'i l'mizban sam chayin? Who wants life? Rav Yannai hava yosiv. Rav Yannai was sitting there, b'kitzer, he says he wants to have life. He told him, he took...

He got to tell him, and he says, Mi shechafetz chayim, ohev yamim lirot tov. So we see that it has to do with what? With shmiras halashon. A pasuk in Tehillim. I once saw a meidige shaila. Why does the Medrash have to tell us where he was peddling? Tzipori. Why is it so important? There was a story, the story of a peddler. I have to know that it was in Tzipori. Why? Meidige shaila. So you would say, Ah, that's not relevant. Let me tell you a pshat I saw, and I'll tell you where I saw it. I saw in the Fridiker Bobover Rebbe's sefer, Kerem Shlomo, quoting Reb Payson the darshan. What? No, no, no, no. He could be, but he says something a little different. It's interesting, because Tzipori, we know, Tzippori, the city, maybe it has to do with that. Okay, he said over Reb Payson haDarshan. I don't know who that is. But he said over from somewhere from Europe that they said over. It says like this: The pasuk says, Lo seva'aru esh b'chol moshvoseichem b'yom haShabbos. Don't make fire on Shabbos. Chazal already ask, we don't do any of the melachos on Shabbos. Why speak about fire? So Chazal say it's either lav yatzis or lechalek yatzis. It means either to tell me that making fire is only a lav, you don't get misah for it, or it's to teach me, lechalek, that if any aveirah I do, separate, even just making fire. What happens is, I don't get a— I get an issur, and I'm chayav for every single one. You don't say, Okay, I did all the Shabbos aveiros, one. No, every one brings a korban for each one. So according to the first pshat— I understand why it says fire, because it's only fire that you get a lot. But according to the second pshat, l'chatchila, why pick fire? You could pick anyone. To show me that I'm oiver for each one separately, I could have picked any one. So there's an interesting Zohar. The Zohar says they picked fire on purpose, because we're not talking about regular fire; we're talking about fire of machlokes. Loisivaru eish, says the Zohar. Loisivaru eish. Don't make fire. Don't make machlokes on Shabbos. Don't make machlokes on Shabbos. Shabbos is a time where people get together, they're sitting over the cholent, and this guy starts saying, By the way, you know, you heard, by there, you know, right? In the shul about kiddush, yeah, a little schnapps and the fighting starts, right? Loisivaru eish b'chol moshvoseichem b'yom haShabbos. The Zohar. He doesn't bring the mashal that I bring, you know, I have to entertain a little bit, אחר כך, loisivaru eish b'chol moshvoseichem. Havosai, listen carefully. This is such a beautiful pshat. Tell me, who had the longest Shabbos from the whole world? Who had the most hours of Shabbos? Kipur had the most hours of Shabbos. And I'll show you, it's a פירוש Gemara. The Gemara in Shabbos, דף יד, says the Gemara, Shabbos, says the Gemara, and it's gepaskened in halacha, by the way. The Gemara says, here's the Gemara, oh, says the Gemara, says the Gemara, oh, a person is supposed to be what? Makdim Shabbos u'ma'achar. Makdim u'ma'achar. You're supposed to make Shabbos come out later. It's brought down in Shulchan Aruch. Yeah? In Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim reish samach. No, you're supposed to prolong the Shabbos, bring the Shabbos in early, and let it go late. Right. So where does that halacha come from? It comes from right here. Amar Rabbi Yosi, yehei chelki mi'machnisei Shabbos b'Tiverya. Those that bring in Shabbos in Tiverya — Zog Rashi, because it was in the valley, so it got dark early, so they used to bring in Shabbos much earlier. And it should be also from those that are motziin Shabbos b'Tzipori, that they take out Shabbos in Tzipori. Says Rashi, why? It's on the mountain, so the sun was able to be seen for very long time. So Shabbos was the longest where? In Tzipori. You're not supposed to make machlokes where? On Shabbos. Mimeila, the peddler was walking around where? In Tzipori. Tzipori is the longest Shabbos. Lashon hara is about Shabbos. Don't speak lashon hara. You don't like it. I like it. I have the right to like it. It's a nice dreus form, but I like it. Hashein a vort. You don't like it. Who cares if you don't like it? I like it. I like it. It's a nice vort. He was peddling. He was trying to bring out, they were peddling in Shabbos because it's a very long Shabbos. You know what happens on the long Shabbos? People have nothing what to do, and they sit around, and they talk. That's what they do on the long Shabbos.

Why read? The Shabbos goes and goes and goes. They're sitting over there and there's nothing better what to do, so they speak lashon hara. So he went around peddling, Mi yesh chafetz chaim? Oy, young, ... Where? You don't like it? ... People have plenty of time on Shabbos, plenty of time to... They say over a very famous line in Europe: Machloikes with anybody, but a guy that has nothing what to do, don't make a machloikes with him. A leydige. You know why? He has so much free time on his hands that you can never get finished with him. You want to fight with a guy, the guy's busy, he don't have time for you. ... Time is money. But if you have nothing what to do, you have a whole afternoon to sit and schmooze with a guy like that, you don't want to fight. You don't want to fight. In sipurei, they have plenty of free time on Shabbos. So maybe he went around peddling, says Reb... I like it. I like it. In drush it's very nice. Now, this, rabosai, are the reasons why you're not supposed to speak lashon hara, plus one from us, because lashon hara makes machloikes. Now I want to show you a little bit deeper, a little bit deeper, rabosai. You know, be'emes, people don't know this. Tzaraas actually comes for a few things, not only for lashon hara. People say, Tzaraas? ... There's a Gemara that says it comes from other things also. I quote you the Gemara, Erchin daf tezayin. Says the Gemara like this. Says the Gemara... Amar Rav Shmuel bar Nachmeni amar Rabbi Yonason: al shivah dvarim nega'im ba'im. It comes actually for seven things. There are seven things that make nega'im come. What? One of them is lashon hara, that we know. Shefichas damim, murder. Oh, shekasuv also lashon hara, you know. ... you speak against, you're killing him, or ... you're killing him in private, okay. Al shvuas shav. If you swear for nothing, it also comes. You knew this? You knew this Gemara? Shvuas shav. Giluy arayos. Giluy arayos, yeah. Be surprised. Hollywood. They wear a lot of makeup over there. I would wonder what's going on underneath all that makeup. Very shy, there's a lot of tarafel over there that they're covering up. Anyways, gazel ... the Gemara says it's not by goyim anyway, but all right. Al gasas haruach. I'm gonna say, unfortunately they're all Jews. Al gasas haruach, the ones that are matzliach are all Jews. Al gasas haruach. Goyim. Goyim, okay. I have no problem. Don't worry about it. I love Jews, don't worry about it. Al gasas haruach. What's gasas haruach? Gasas haruach is gaivah, yeah. Al hagezel. You steal, you get tzaraas. You knew this? Guys, you knew this? Everybody thinks that's lashon hara. Who said? It has to gezel also. Al tzaras ayin. A person who is very selfish and stingy and he doesn't want to share with other people, he also gets tzaraas. You hear? Stingy guy, selfish guy, he also gets tzaraas. You knew this? And the Gemara brings pesukim. So my shaylah to you is— I don't understand. Why do we say it comes from lashon hara? The Gemara says it comes from other things too. So you could come and say, could be the ikar, the ikar comes from lashon hara. It also comes from this, but the main cause, you know, every disease can come from many things, but there's always one main thing that brings it. Let's see the lashon of Rambam, how the Rambam brings this. The Rambam brings that tzaraas comes from lashon hara, and he doesn't bring the other things. Says the Rambam—no, the Rambam in Tzaraas, the Rambam in Hilchos Tumas Tzaraas, the Rambam says like this. Oh, says the Rambam, Hatzaraas... What does it come from? It says like this, it says here: Shenikrais haTorah Tzoras Hashem, eina minhago shel olam, ela os u'pele hayah b'Yisrael k'dei l'hazhiram milashon hara, to protect them that they shouldn't speak lashon hara. I don't understand. The Gemara brings seven things that it's for. Yeah, I mean, the cause is all seven. Why would the Rambam pasken that it's only lashon hara? So the truth is, the truth is, there's a Gemara in Taanis, daf vav amud beis, that the Gemara brings a different man d'amar. The Gemara brings that lashon hara is the cause of tzaraas, like we learn out, Zot tihyeh toras hametzora.

Amrei, Shlakish: mai dichsiv, Zois hi haTorah la'olah, zois hi haTorah shel olah shema. Now, the emes, it's interesting, shema, lashon hara, there's different gedarim. I don't know, is it only shema? You have to know which Chazal are we paskening, because this Gemara says it comes from lashon hara. This Gemara says it comes from shema. Maybe we pasken Reb Yosi, that it's only for shema, and we don't pasken like this man d'amar in the Gemara that says it's seven things. Maybe we only pasken this. I don't know, then it's maybe only shema who says lashon hara. You have to know well the sugya, and I don't have the time to explain you clearly what the Rambam is paskening over here. Either way, we have to understand: is it lashon hara or is it the seven things? I think it's both. I believe it's both, and I believe the ikar is lashon hara, but these seven things also have in it the bacteria, the bacteria called lashon hara, and I'll explain you how that works. What's wrong with lashon hara? Is it bein adam l'chaveiro or bein adam laMakom? You hear? Where are you going? Is it bein adam l'chaveiro or bein adam laMakom? What would you say? Bein adam l'chaveiro, yeah? Both. You say, but how do you know? Chinuch. Why? Because it is chinuch over here. Kitru Klal Yisrael. Kiss Yaakov. All right, this means it's a good sign that everyone's listening. At least that I got from what you're saying. ... and I'm sad that nobody brings a raya. I also offered a raya. Mi ha'ish hechafetz... I'm sorry, excuse me. Shimu li. Come, my children, listen to me. Yiras Hashem alamedchem. I'll teach you yiras Hashem. Mi ha'ish hechafetz chayim... So you see clearly, what is it? Yiras Hashem. It's a pasuk, no? And the famous—everybody knows the pasuk. Does anybody doesn't know this pasuk? You know the pasuk? L'chu banim... shimu li. It's a song. L'chu banim, shimu li. Yiras Hashem. He ties the pasuk, it should be shimu li, not shimu li. Shimu li, yiras Hashem alamedchem. So you see it's yiras Hashem. You see clearly it's about yiras Hashem. Mi ha'ish hechafetz chayim... Huh? That's something everybody knows, right? Mi ha'ish is not? No, sure it is. L'chu banim, shimu li, yiras Hashem alamedchem, umi ha'ish hechafetz chayim... It's all—so they don't know this one. They only know from Mi ha'ish hechafetz chayim. Mi ha'ish hechafetz chayim. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. According to this tape I don't have a raya, and according to this tape I have a raya. Okay. I כפפתי from the pasuk. All jokes aside, Mi ha'ish hechafetz chayim, it starts off with yiras Hashem alamedchem. So you see clearly, what is it? A pasuk in Tehillim, lamed-daled, yud-beis: Yiras Hashem. Okay. It's bein adam laMakom, yiras Hashem. How is it bein adam laMakom? The truth is, there's a Chazal. Chazal tell us that if you speak lashon hara, ki'ilu kofer b'ikar. Right here says the Gemara: Kol hamesaper lashon hara, amar רבי יוחנן משום רבי יוסי בן זמרא, kol hamesaper לשון הרע, כאילו כופר בעיקר. First of all, why are you a kofer b'ikar? Kofer — I speak lashon hara against my friend. You hear how bad it is? I'm a kofer b'ikar, and why is it ki'ilu? Either, yeah or not, what's ki'ilu? Almost like. Why ki'ilu? So the truth is, I believe the pashut pshat is the Rambam. The Rambam explains that you think lashon hara starts by just talking against your friend and that's where it ends. It starts with talking against your friend; it ends that you'll talk against Hashem. I read, says the Rambam: The zeh derech yeshivas haleitzim haresha'im, b'tchilasam medabrim b'divrei havai. First they talk litzanus against people, and then they talk against the tzaddikim, and then they talk against the nevi'im. U'mitoch kach ba'im ledaber b'Elokim. They talk against what? Against Hashem. Where did the Rambam get this from? That's this Gemara. He's trying to put all the Gemaras together. Yes, Chofetz Chaim brings it. The Chofetz Chaim got it from the Rambam. It's the Rambam. The Chofetz Chaim brings it. Of course he brings it; he brings it from the Rambam. So we see clearly that what? That it's kofer b'ikar, this Chazal. So why is it ki'ilu? I understand the ki'ilu now also, because you weren't kofer now. It leads to ki'ilu kofer b'ikar, more or less. Again, it's not 100% shot in the ki'ilu, but that's what it means. You can't say, I think I speak lashon hara is kofer b'ikar. It leads.

Kafa b'ikar. That's what the Rambam learns. Rabosai, Rabbeinu Yonah learns you're mamash a kofer b'ikar. Before we get this Rabbeinu Yonah, I just want to point out, does it now become clearer why the Torah was so makpid on the inyan of lashon hara? Because what is it? Simple thing. What'd you do? And still, what does it lead to? It leads to kefirah, to be a kofer b'ikar. So a person will take it lightly. Why? It's about ... Chaim better ... The name דוד came to my mind. I'm sorry. I have to be careful. I look at you and I say, Eliezer, you think I'm throwing at you. I'm not. I just ... Chaim, I'd rather say דוד all the way through the shiur. Chaim, better. What'd you do? What'd you say? And the answer is, you're right, this is not that big. You know what's big? It leads to ... the next step, this one and that one. You don't stop by just speaking against your friend. And a person thinks, No big deal. What's the big deal? Like I thought of this shiur, what's the big deal? Yeah, but you don't realize the result is you'll be a kofer b'ikar. That's why the Torah maybe puts such an emphasis. Terrible, terrible. Lashon hara is very bad. It's a terrible thing. Okay. Rabbeinu Yonah learns that you're mamash now a kofer b'ikar. A guy who speaks lashon hara, it doesn't lead to it. You're now a kofer b'ikar. I read you the Rabbeinu Yonah. Rabbeinu Yonah says in שער ג', אות ריש, listen to what a mesaper lashon hara is. What's a mesaper lashon hara? He says a mesaper lashon hara is, מי עוד ... חשבו כאילו כפר בעיקר. Why? He can cause terrible things to his friend with this. He embarrasses his friend. He's ruining his name. Because it's impossible to hurt somebody in such a way unless you do not have yiras Shamayim. You hear what he's saying? You're a koifer b'ikar because we view you now as a koifer b'ikar, you hear? How could you do this? How could you hurt your friend like this? If you could do a thing like this, it's a siman you must have been porek ol Shamayim. Unbelievable, you hear this? Open Shaarei Teshuva, beis. Open Shaarei Teshuva. You want to know why we view you as a koifer b'ikar? You must be a koifer b'ikar if you could do a thing like this. A person has to be a פרוע, a person without morals at all to do a thing like this. Huh? No, it's with this. You see it's with this. You see it's with this. Like someone, like kim le'negdam. If you could do this, it means you don't believe in Hashem. You don't believe in Hashem. Yeah, I'm not making it up. Then Rabbeinu Yonah says a second reason why you're a koifer b'ikar, and he says because you think you're the boss of your mouth. You're the boss. You can talk what you want, say what you want. If HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave you a mouth, He told you what to do with it. The fact that you consider yourself picha birshuscha, that you're the baal habos, you're the owner of your mouth, you can say what you want. It's my mouth. I'll do what I want with my mouth. Tell me something. Are you allowed to do what you want with your hands? Are you allowed to go over, hit a guy? It's my hand. I have the right to do what I want with it, right? What's the answer? No, you don't have the right to do what you want with your hands. Same thing, a person with his mouth. It wasn't given to you for that. Hashem gave you a mouth for a reason. You think it's your mouth to do what you want with it? Kofer b'ikar, l'beini Yoim, two pshatim from Rabbeinu Yona. Abaye, I want to ask a third pshat. Why are you a kofer b'ikar? Why are you a kofer b'ikar? How are you a kofer b'ikar? Abaye, let me have a discussion with you, as they say, heart to heart. I might be in the minority who thinks this way, who believes this way, who lives this way, but this is what I believe, and this is the way I live, and this is what I was taught. In my home, from my grandfather, from his father, the beis din, and so on and so forth, going up and down, we were taught that a Jew has chashivus, has importance, and anybody who touches on the importance of a Yid is not just speaking lashon hara; he's fatally attacking the Ribono Shel Olam who created this person.

And can you let me explain? Let me talk. I'll prove it to you. Don't think I'm not finished yet, yeah? And he fatally attacks Yiddishkeit. I'll explain to you what that means. Even represents HaKadosh Baruch Hu. V'ra'u kol amei haaretz ki shem Hashem nikra alecha. We walk around, and we represent the Ribono Shel Olam in this world. A person in general represents Hashem. He's called a tzelem Elokim. And that's why you're not allowed to have a person hanging. After he committed the worst of crimes, he's chayav misah. He's hanging. You must take him down. You know why? Because ki tzelem Elokim talui. A tzelem Elokim, a man, a creation of Hashem, is hanging. And people who view him, says Rashi, will embarrass the Melech. Take a look at the Melech is hanging. Rashi says it. Ki killal Elokim talui. I didn't make this up. There's a Chazal, rabosai. Man, as simple as he is, represents Hashem. For deeper understanding of this, it's not the right time and forum. The Zohar speaks ba'arichus. Man is a microcosm of the Ribono Shel Olam, vayipach b'apav nishmas ruach chayim, right? Man has in himself Elokus, nafsh adam, b'tzalmeinu kidmuseinu. I don't want to talk about it ba'arichus; it's a great length now, but there's a mefurash Rashi. That don't say, Oh, the melech is hanging, the melech is hanging. A Yid represents HaKadosh Baruch Hu even more. Ki shem Hashem nikra alecha. We walk around, and we are the ben melech. As ben melech, there's a certain chashivus that you must give the ben melech, because he's the ben melech. Do you know that the whole issur of avodah zarah began with that? The Rambam tells us, Bimei Enosh, how did avodah zarah start? They made a mistake. Not that they did an aveirah, meaning they did a malicious thing. They made a mistake, a calculation that was wrong. What was their calculation? Amru, they said, Ha'oylamim bor'ei kochavim eilu. Hashem created these kochavim, v'galgalim l'hanhig es ha'olam, v'nasan bahem kavod, he told them that they have to have respect for them, v'heim shamashim hameshamshim lefanav, re'uyim hein l'shapcham u'lefa'aram u'lachek lahem kavod. This is the philosophical mistake. If Hashem made them the shamashim, the servants of Hashem, they deserve respect, they deserve honor. It is, re'uyim hein l'shapcham u'lefa'aram u'lachek lahem kavod. Why? Because if they represent Hashem, if they are the servants, the servants, the servers of Hashem, you must have respect for them because that's respect for the Melech. They made a mistake. I want you to know something. I'm thinking about this. Rabbeinu Shalom says, Don't bow down to all the stars, v'chol tzva hashamayim asher tzivisi l'cha lo l'hishtachavos. You hear? Don't bow down to the tzva hashamayim that I told you not to bow down to. What was the havamina you should bow down to? Why couldn't it be, don't bow down to nothing? So what is the lashon? Hashem said, don't bow down to nothing besides Me. Why does the Torah stress? Now, so the pashut pshat is because there was a world that used to do it. There was a world that used to do it. So therefore, Hashem has to be mavtiach, has to undo what they think. There could be this. It's tefilah. There is a ta'us, which in truth, it's not off. It's not completely off, because it makes sense to be mechabed, to mishamesh of the melech. L'chol tzva haShamayim. Tzva means it's the army of the Shamayim, of Hashem. I commanded you not to do it. Don't bow down only because, what, I have to make a special mitzvah. Don't bow down to them, because in theory it makes sense, yes, to bow down to them. You hear? I'll tell you even more. V'zeh ratzon HaKel Baruch Hu. That was their mistake. They thought Hashem wanted this. What? L'chabed mi shegidlo v'kibdoi. Hashem made them great, so maybe Hashem wants us to respect.

In fact, k'moisha melech rotzeh l'chabed ha'omdim lefanav, v'zehu kvodei shel melech. That's the kavod of the melech. Rabosai, mevazeh Yid, and the Yid has ki-sheim Hashem nikra alecha, actually you're kofer b'... That's where the problem is. There's a ma'aseh in the Ponevezher Rav, which is along the same lines of this concept that I'm telling you. He once met a group of people, speaking lashon hara. So the Ponevezher Rav, ztl, the yidden aleinu, asked them, Tell me, what are you talking about? There's nothing what to do, so we're trying to pass time with speaking lashon hara. So he says, I can't understand how you could do that. You're pasling the tzelem of the Ribbono Shel Olam. You're ruining the tzelem of the Ribbono Shel Olam. How are you ruining the tzelem of the Ribbono Shel Olam? It says in the tzelem of the Ribbono Shel Olam, Mi kamcha Yisrael goy echad ba'aretz. So it says in the Torah, the Gemara tells us, in our tefillin it says there's nobi like Hashem, and Hashem's tefillin it says there's nobi like Klal Yisrael. And what are you saying? This causes no good. You're pasling the tzelem of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. This is this yesod, Rabosai. A Yid is a ben melech. How could you talk about a ben melech? You're desecrating the name of Hashem. Now let's go to the cases, the sheva, the seven things which bring about, which bring about tzaraas. One of them is what? Lashon hara. The second one is shefichas damim. Tell me, didn't we say that a person's nivra b'tzelem Elokim? Didn't we speak about that? And that if you hang a person, it's tzelem Elokim. So if you kill a person, what are you killing? You're killing a tzelem Elokim. What's the next one? Like, sisa shem Hashem. Shvuas shav. You know how shvuas shav is forbidden in the Torah? With what problem is there in shvuas shav? With what did the Torah say you're not allowed to do shvuas shav? What's the context? L'sisa shem Hashem Elokecha lashav. Sound familiar? The shem Hashem is desecrating by shvuah the name of Hashem. Tzaras comes from the desecration of the name of Hashem. That's where tzaras comes from. There are seven things, and if you continue, all the cases are along the same lines. Through all these maamarei Chazal, if I can get the Gemara here. Where's the Gemara? Ah. Gemara says like this: gilui arayos. Tell me, you know what gilui arayos? What is the word that matches gilui arayos together with avodah zarah, and it's the same word for both aveiros? V'zanah Elokim acherim, right? It's the same word. The hiznah. The word zonah, where it comes to gilui arayos, is the same word by v'zanah Elokim acherim. Elohim, excuse me, v'zanah elohim acherim. It's to be unfaithful. One is unfaithful to arayos, and one is unfaithful to Ribono Shel Olam. Gasus ruach. Sound familiar? Ein ani v'hu yecholin ladur b'dirah achas. It's all the same concept. A person with a baal gaivah, what is he? It's me. It's all about me. Gezel? What is gezel? Tell me something. Didn't the even ezer tell us by lo sachmod, it's a chesaron of v'yareisa meElokecha. Where's the chesaron of v'yareisa meElokecha? If the Ribono Shel Olam gave it to him, what do you want it for? It's not yours, right? There wouldn't be an issur of lo sachmod. If you steal what Hashem gives to one person, what are you doing? You're undermining what? You're undermining the Ribono Shel Olam. The last and final thing I might have a problem with, and maybe one day we'll talk about it: tzaras ayin. What is tzaras ayin? Rashi explains that you don't want to lend people things. How does that have to do with Hashem? I'll tell you, in a drush way, I believe it could be a pshat in it also, and I don't have enough time to elaborate on it. You know what the Ger told—I'm sorry, Hillel told the ger when he wanted to become a Jew? He told him, What is hateful to you, do not do to your friend. And the mefarshim ask, why is that kol haTorah kula? Right? He wants to know kol haTorah kula. So he told him this. He's telling him, ein od milvado. Why do you tell him, What is hateful to you, do not do to your friend? What is that kol haTorah kula? And the mefarshim explain, and we spoke about it many times in the past, a goy only lives for himself. A Yid has to learn that he doesn't live for himself; he lives for something beyond himself.

I'll speak. Thank you so much for coming. Did you— tell me, I wanted to ask you. So the shayla is, the shayla is, why did he tell him that? Why did he tell him that? And the answer in mefarshim say is beautiful. Mefarshim say, spoke about many times, a guy can only live— a Yid can only live— sorry, a guy lives for himself. A Yid has to learn that he lives for something more than himself. Once you can live for something more than yourself, then you have room for a Ribono Shel Olam in your life. Otherwise, a person can't affiliate, I mean, my Super Bowl and my beer. I mean, don't start up with that, right? Nothing can come in the way of my Super Bowl and beer. A Yid knows that there's a Ribono Shel Olam, so you can give it up. So this is a lesson, it's not only about you. You got to learn on a low level, so to speak, beyond you, something else besides you. And then you're ready to what? To know Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Interesting, tzaras ayin. What is tzaras ayin? You're so selfish, you live for yourself. You can't do anything for another guy. These are all the— this is the shoresh of the machlah of lashon hara. These are all things which make up the disease called lashon hara, which brings about the onesh, the disease called tzaraas. It brings about. You know, what was the inyan of tzaraas? Badad yeishev. He sits alone. Tell me something, why is that part of the onesh? So pashut the mefarshim say because he was tamei. The Chaim Shmulevitz in the sicha says a different reason. Badad yeishev. We're teaching him, you need people. What's wrong with you? I don't think— you know what it's like to live without people around you? You're a baal lashon hara. People don't want anything to do with you. You hurt people. You learn to appreciate the people around you, and you won't speak lashon hara. So we put you bad at the yetzer. It says that ... Sound familiar? Tzaras ayin? Selfishness? Tzaras ayin? For yourself, you live in your house and you don't care about the people around you. These are all what? These are all the fibers of the machlah called lashon hara. All seven. It's all emes. It's about lashon hara, and it's about these seven things which are splinters from the bigger problem called lashon hara. Habaisai, just by giving you a nutshell what's wrong with lashon hara. Now I understand why the Torah is so against it. These are diseases that just not I did against somebody. It's bein adam l'chaveiro, which is rooted in a deep tefirah b'ikar, which could lead to a tremendous koifer b'ikar, that a person doesn't believe in Hashem. It begins maybe with a small lashon hara, like the Rambam said, but it leads to serious, serious problems, bein ruchniyus, in hashkafah, in bein adam l'chaveiro. It sprouts out into a much bigger disease. That's why the Torah ... with so many different ways, and that's why the Torah put a special onesh for it: tzaraas, tzaraas. Habaisai, let's pack up. And, b'ezras Hashem, in a funny way I'll say it, but I mean it, we should be zoche that we should have ... You get it? We don't have it today because we're in galus. And then when we come back to extra, we'll be on the level and we can get it again, with a bracha in a funny way, around that way, we should get back to the...