His son Shim'on used to say: All my life I have grown up among the sages and I have found nothing to be of greater physical benefit than silence. It is not the study which is essential but the performance. The more you say the more you sin.
EXPLANATIONS (continued):
6:
The classical commentators have a non-historical interpretation of this teaching of Rabban Shim'on ben-Gamli'el. They understand him to have been recommending reticence of speech as a virtue, essentially because the less one says to other people the less the danger of lashon ha-ra – calumny, spiteful chatter. Lashon ha-ra is considered by the sages, as is right and proper, to be a great sin and a dangerous social vice.
7:
Many people have a grave misconception concerning lashon ha-ra. They think that it involves telling malicious lies about other people. This is incorrect. The person guilty of spreading malicious and untruthful gossip about someone else is guilty in halakhic terminology of being motzi shem ra – calumniating. The sin of lashon ha-ra involves telling the truth about someone else! What defines lashon ha-ra is not so much the content of what is said but the intention of the person making the remarks. Lashon ha-ra involves making statements about someone else – even when the information is correct and truthful – where the intention is that the person listening to this information will form a negative opinion of the person under discussion, as it were. The essential essence of lashon ha-ra is its malicious intent, the intent to denigrate.
8:
That lashon ha-ra is a social evil is emphasized in an oft-quoted statement of the sages to be found in the Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Pe'ah 4b]:
Lashon ha-ra maims three [people] – him who says it, him who listens to it and him about whom it is said.
In this day and age it is almost impossible not to infringe this serious sin in some way or other. One of the greatest halakhic sages of the latter part of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century was Rabbi Israel Me'ir Kagan [1838-1933]. His first major published work was a treatise on lashon ha-ra which is now a classic. He was so self-effacing that he did not want to put his name on the title page, so he replaced it with a well-known quotation from the psalter [Psalm 34:12-15]:
Come my sons, listen to me; I will teach you what it is to fear God. Who is the man who is eager for life, who desires years of good fortune? Guard your tongue from evil, your lips from deceitful speech. Shun evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
The phrase "eager for life" in Hebrew became the man's sobriquet: Ĥafetz Ĥayyim. The story is told how the young scholar, not yet famous, presented the manuscript of his book to Rabbi Israel Salanter [1810-1883], the founder and pillar of the Musar Movement among Yeshivah students (a movement whose aim it was – and is – to instill respect for the moral and ethical teachings of Judaism no less than for its other halakhic requirements). Rabbi Salanter commended the book and told the young author: "Reb Israel Me’ir, everyone should read your book on lashon ha-ra – even if the end result is just one great sigh!" So difficult is it to observe the minutiae of this mitzvah.
9:
In a previous shiur [Avot 047] I wrote about the halakhic problems involved in the modern democratic system of representative government:
The problem with democracy is that it requires people to stand up and ask to be given power… I think that Shemayah would also have answered Amen to the teaching of another great philosopher, Confucius, who really did say: "Only those are worthy to govern who would rather be excused." Society can only be sure that it will not be abused by those in whose hands the direction of its affairs has been confided when those public officials recognize the awesomeness of the power that is placed in their hands – and tremble. As far as I am aware no system of government has yet been concocted that would lead to such a desideratum.
At this time I think that almost everyone must be aware of another great flaw in the democratic system: it encourages one candidate to advance his cause by denigrating the other – and that denigration almost inevitably involves lashon ha-ra. I recall that many years ago during a local election in a very small Israeli township I was visited by an aspiring local politician who wished to canvas my vote. He began by telling me everything that was wrong with all the other candidates and their policies. I politely stopped him and asked him to advance his own case rather than speak of the others. He was struck dumb and could find nothing to say! Something very similar is happening at this time in the greatest democracy on this planet.
To be continued.
PLEASE NOTE:
During the next four weeks I shall out of town a lot, but during that period I shall do my best to send out as many shiurim as possible. The next shiurim in this series are scheduled for 27th and 28th October.
