* Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
This past Shabbat we read about tzara’at, a skin affliction that was a punishment for negative or harmful speech, lashon hara.
Rabbi Yisroel Meir HaKohen Kagan from the city of Radin in Eastern Europe was known as the “Chafetz Chaim.” One might say that his life mission, in the early part of the twentieth century, was to teach about the Jewish approach to proper speech. His books about lashon hara, which detail the many halachot (laws) regarding this topic, changed the Jewish world. Here are two important lessons that we can learn from him:
• The Chafetz Chaim would speak about a certain individual who spent his days gossiping and sowing dissension among the members of his community. One day, the rabbi of the community approached this man and asked him to take a pillow filled with feathers and to throw the feathers to the wind. He then asked him to collect the feathers. Needless to say, this was an impossible task—the feathers were gone. The moral of this story is clear: the rabbi was teaching this man that his evil words had already spread throughout the town, causing considerable damage. Every word that we say and write—especially in the current age of WhatsApp and social media—is released to the entire world.
• So wait, does this mean that we need to be silent? Not at all. Whoever studies the life and works of the Chafetz Chaim will learn an important lesson: One can and must speak. In fact, sometimes we are obligated to speak. We should speak positive and encouraging words; moreover, there is a specific mitzvah called “tochacha” (reproach)—which is to critique others for their sins and failures from a place of respect and love. The Chafetz Chaim himself mediated contentious disputes within the Jewish world. He devoted much of his life to speaking and writing. It is precisely for this reason that he published halachic guides to proper speech so that we can learn how to speak properly. For indeed, there are “feathers” that are important to spread throughout the world.
May we learn when to be silent and when to speak.
Shavua Tov.
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