Reply To: Positive Word Power

SEFER CHOFETZ CHAIM

Day 30 – Without Names

All forms of loshon hora are prohibited even when no names are mentioned, if it will be possible for people to determine who is being discussed.

Furthermore, if names are omitted but the story will reflect badly on an entire group of people, it may not be spoken. Speaking critically about an unnamed student at a yeshiva is often taken as a statement about the entire student body or as a reflection on yeshiva students in general. If this is the implication, the statement is a more serious form of loshon hora, for it reflects on a multitude of Jews.

SEFER SHMIRAS HALOSHON

Rewards

Zohar states (Parashas Chukas) that one who is zealous in avoiding forbidden speech becomes enveloped in a spirit of sanctity.

Midrash Tanchuma (Tehillim 52:2) states: “The Holy One, Blessed is He, said: ‘If you seek to escape [the punishments of] Gehinnom, distance yourselves from loshon hora. Through this, you will be deemed meritorious in this world and the next.’ ”

The Torah states: “You shall not eat flesh of an animal that was torn in the field; to the dog shall you throw it” (Shemos 2:30). In fact, it is permitted to dispose of such meat in other ways as well. However, the Torah says to throw such meat to dogs as a way of reward for their not having howled at any Jew on the night of the Exodus (ibid. 11:7), for Hashem does not deprive any creature of its just reward. Surely, then, there is infinite reward reserved for man, who, through his own free choice, refrains from speaking the forbidden (Mechilta, Parashas Mishpatim 20).