We often teach children that lashon hara means gossip and that we risk embarrassing others with our words. While part of this is true, it misses something essential about the concept and its implications.
First, the word for gossip is rechilut, which can also mean to slander. And the point about risking embarrassment is true. The rabbis are entirely clear about how we should avoid causing each other an emotional death.
But in terms of lashon hara, evil or malicious speech, a much broader category, there is still more to learn.
On Arakhin 15a, we learn this:
It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Elazar ben Perata says: Come and see how great the power of malicious speech [lashon hara] is. From where do we derive this?
From the punishment received by the spies. And if one who defames the wood and rocks of Eretz Yisrael received such a severe punishment, then with regard to one who defames another person, all the more so will he be punished severely.
Rabbi Elazar ben Perata asks himself, how powerful is malicious language?
His answer? The spies in this week’s Torah portion, Shlach, were punished due to their malicious language towards the land of Israel. If they were punished for comments about land, how much more punishment might they receive if they spoke this way about people?
This begins to set up our understanding that malicious language is greater than we first might have thought.
The Talmud continues with a question of clarification:
From where is it known that the punishment of the spies was for malicious speech? Perhaps their punishment was due to the sin explained by Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa.
As Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa says: The spies uttered a great statement of blasphemy at that time. As it is written: “But the men that went up with him said: We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than us [mimmennu]” (Numbers 13:31).
Do not read this as “for they are stronger than us [mimmennu]” but rather read it as: For they are stronger than it [mimmennu]. i.e., stronger than God. They were saying, as it were, that the owner, i.e., God, cannot remove God’s utensils, the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael, from there. If so, one can explain that the spies were punished for their blasphemy rather than for their malicious speech.
How do we know that the spies were punished for malicious speech? Could it not be blasphemy?
Through a nuanced understanding of how the word mimmennu can be conjugated either as first-person plural, as it is generally, or as a third-person singular, as Rabbi Hanina bar Pappa wants it to be.
This argument is not accepted because the Talmud argues that this verse is pretty clear that we’re talking about malicious language:
“Those who spread evil reports about the land died of a plague by the will of the LORD. (Numbers 14:37)
To be fair, an evil report is pretty clear malicious language.
But lashon has other meanings too.
We learn in a later bit of Talmud:
Rabbi Yoḥanan says in the name of Rabbi Yosei ben Zimra: What is the meaning of that which is written: “What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done for you, you deceitful tongue” (Psalms 120:3)?
The Holy One, Blessed be God said to the tongue: All the other limbs of a person are upright, but you are lying horizontally. All the other limbs of a person are external, but you are internal. And moreover, I have surrounded you with two walls, one of bone, i.e., the teeth, and one of flesh, the lips.
What shall be given to you and what more shall be done for you, to prevent you from speaking in a deceitful manner, tongue?
The verse from Psalms describes one’s tongue as “deceitful.” This is a fantastic play on words as the word lashon, language, is also the word for tongue. So lashon hara can also be translated as evil tongue.
So what does this verse mean? Rabbi Yosei ben Zimra imagines that God is decrying the tongue away from its deceit.
I created you unique, with protection, says God to the tongue, yet you remain willing and able to speak harmfully. It is quite poetic.
Malicious language is bad. We get it. How bad?
The Talmud tells us that malicious language is worse than we think.
Furthermore, Rabbi Yoḥanan says in the name of Rabbi Yosei ben Zimra: Anyone who speaks malicious speech is considered as though they denied the fundamental belief in God. As it is stated: “Who have said: We will make our tongue mighty; our lips are with us: Who is lord over us” (Psalms 12:5).
We’ve come full circle, saving Rabbi Hanina bar Pappa from before. One who speaks lashon hara denies God. How do we know? Because God said our tongue is mighty and when we speak malicious language, we make that verse untrue.
Of course, we also just learned about how tongues are deceitful, so that’s a bit of a contradiction, but if we pull back to the big idea. When we speak in this manner, we make the universe worse, by denying some of its goodness.
The Talmud continues, comparing one who speaks slanderously of their neighbor in secret will experience leprosy. And then we learn:
And Reish Lakish says: Anyone who speaks malicious speech increases their sins until the heavens, as it is stated: “They have set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth” (Psalms 73:9). In other words, while his tongue walks on the earth, his sin reaches the heavens.
That malicious speech, that lashon hara, can become so large in reaches beyond the earth to the heavens. It harkens back to our original question: how powerful is malicious speech?
The rabbis are serious about this language:
Rav Ḥisda says that Mar Ukva says: Anyone who speaks malicious speech, it is appropriate to stone them with stones…
And Rav Ḥisda says that Mar Ukva says: With regard to anyone who speaks malicious speech, the Holy One, Blessed be God says about him: The person and I cannot dwell together in the world. As it is stated in the verse: “Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will destroy him; whoever is haughty of eye and proud of heart, I will not suffer them” (Psalms 101:5).
Do not read the phrase as: “I will not suffer them [oto],” but as: With them [ito] I cannot bear to dwell. God is saying that God cannot bear having this person in the world with God. And there are those who teach this notion of God’s not being able to tolerate a certain type of person in reference to the arrogant, i.e., they apply it to the last part of the verse: Proud of heart.
A person who uses this language should be punished, severely. And more than that, God says that to speak in such a manner makes one unworthy of being in the world at all.
So what can we do? Humility and Study.
So, malicious language is pretty serious. That much is clear. It is bigger and scarier than just gossip.
How can we fix it?
Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina says: What is the remedy for those who speak malicious speech?
If they are a Torah scholar, let them study Torah, as it is stated: “A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but its perverseness is a broken spirit” (Proverbs 15:4). And the word “tongue” means nothing other than malicious speech, as it is stated: “Their tongue is a sharpened arrow; it speaks deceit” (Jeremiah 9:7). And the word “tree” means nothing other than Torah, as it is stated: “It is a tree of life to them that lay hold of it” (Proverbs 3:18).
And if they are an unlearned, let them humble their mind, as it is stated: “Its perverseness is a broken spirit” (Proverbs 15:4). In other words, one who perverts their tongue with malicious speech should remedy their behavior by cultivating a broken and humble spirit.
Humility and study. This is the way we can remedy the situation, or is it?
Rabbi Aḥa, son of Rabbi Ḥanina says: If one has already spoken malicious speech, they have no remedy…
Rather, what is their remedy beforehand, so that they do not come to speak malicious speech?
If they are a Torah scholar, let them study Torah; and if they are unlearned let them humble their mind…
Here’s the real deal. We can’t fix it.
There is no way to truly fix the harmful language we use, we can only avoid it.
This is the lesson we learn about the spies and the way we use language more generally. When we use language that harms, we cannot know the full impact of our words.
The spies caused the people to continue wandering in the desert for decades. For us, what long-term harm can we produce in another person without even realizing it?
The way we avoid this fate is by learning wisdom, acting with kindness, and seeking humility within ourselves.
Very good lesson, Rabbi. Thank you. It's not the case that "words will never hurt you" - sometimes that is the most lasting pain of all. Shabbat Shalom.