Good evening, everybody. Here’s tonight’s Shemirat Halashon (guarding our speech) broadcast.
Our Chachamim (sages) advise us that a person should choose one mitzvah (commandment) and he should excel in that mitzvah to the fullest. Which mitzvah should that be? The Chafetz Chaim gives us a mashal (parable). Picture that you’re an employee. Your boss offers you a choice: either you can earn a lump sum of money at a time, but not too often, or you can receive a very steady weekly paycheck. Of course, you’d probably request a steady income.
So too, says the Chafetz Chaim, with mitzvot. When we choose a mitzvah to focus on, it’s a good idea to choose one that’s relevant on a daily basis. Of all the activities of our day, which one do you think we do most often? We speak. We’re constantly talking. We’re constantly speaking. He advises that we choose the mitzvah of guarding our speech and perform it really well. We can accomplish this by learning and reviewing the halachot (Jewish laws) or Shemirat Halashon on a daily basis.
It pays to excel in this mitzvah because through it, we could be earning immeasurable amounts of Sachar, of reward, every moment of every day. Every moment that we refrain from speaking Lashon Hara (evil speech), we could really be cashing in.
So here’s tonight’s halacha. What would you do in the following case? What would you do when Lashon Hara isn’t relevant to you, but it has already been spoken?
Last night, we were talking about what to do if someone is in the middle of a sentence and starts speaking Lashon Hara to you: how to kind of word it off and test to see if it’s relevant to you or not. But what happens if you didn’t initiate it and suddenly realize that your friend did speak Lashon Hara?
For instance, your friend tells you, “You know my neighbor? Terribly self-centered. She would never take my children off the bus in that situation.” Now, all of a sudden, you realize that when she’s done, uh-oh, she just spoke Lashon Hara. So what do you do now?
The Chafetz Chaim says, try to fix it. Try to find some sort of Zechut (merit) for the person who was just degraded. You could say something like, “Oh, probably, you know, your neighbor has a full-time job. She works day and night. She’s taking care of her own kids. I’m sure that if she were able to, she would probably help you. She’s just so knocked out.”
However, says the Chafetz Chaim, if you know that your friend is the type of person who won’t let you have the last word—she’s the type of person who’ll start going on and on and finding other negative things to say about the neighbor just to get the last word—then really, all you could say to that person once they’ve spoken Lashon Hara is, “Let’s not talk about people.”
It’s not easy to stand for what you know is right. But life is so much better off when we stand for truth. Thank you.