Another story. I'm gonna end up with this. There's a person in Lakewood that I spoke to. A tremendous, tremendous story. Many years ago, when he moved to Lakewood, his young daughter unfortunately fainted. They rushed her to CHOP Hospital in Philly, and unfortunately, she entered a coma. She was not doing well. She was around 10 years old at the time. The doctors were telling him. He told me details about exactly what happened to her liver and her heart, but when it comes to this stuff, I'm terrible with the medical details. He told me all the details; it was very complicated.
He tells me that while he was driving on Route Nine in Lakewood—the main road in Lakewood is called Route Nine—he was driving down Route Nine. He was on a phone call with somebody, and he wanted to say such good lashon hara (evil speech). He was in such pain. He wanted to take the pain off his chest, and he had such a good line of lashon hara, but he controlled himself. He told me it was so hard not to say that lashon hara. Now, I'm sure many people are listening, including myself. It sounds a little—how hard could it be? But next time it might happen to you, when you really want to say lashon hara, you right away start to dan l'kaf zechut (judge favorably) yourself. You give yourself a benefit of that, why you're allowed to say this. It's pretty hard.
This person controlled himself and didn't talk lashon hara. He ended the call. He said he had a little chutzpah (audacity). He turned to Shamayim (Heaven) and told Hashem, "Hashem, I close my mouth not to talk lashon hara. Please open up the mouth of my daughter who's sitting in a coma in CHOP Hospital. I close my mouth not to speak lashon hara. Open the mouth of my daughter." Around 10-15 minutes later, he got a call from his wife. His wife was hysterical over the phone: "Our daughter started crying. She started teeing, which is a sign that she's waking up. Rush to the hospital." He said he went so fast to CHOP Hospital in Philly. The doctors were telling him, "She already started crying. Now she's back asleep, but if she started crying, it's a sign she's waking up. Give her around 24 to 48 hours, and we will know." And that's what happened. She, Baruch Hashem (thank God), is a hundred percent healthy.
This story was said over in Lakewood around a year ago, not by me, but by Rabbi Yechezkel Menashe, who's also on TorahAnytime. As he's telling this story, a girl from the crowd gets up, raises her hand, and says, "Lashon hara, I'm sorry, lashon hara is a hand." She tells him, "Rabbi, I'm the girl. I'm the girl. I was in a coma. Now everything is fine." What? One time I'm not speaking lashon hara? Like the Vilna Gaon says, every moment—a moment that you don't speak lashon hara—how much Beracha, how much blessing does a person get? How many opportunities a day do we have not to speak lashon hara? Hashem gives us so opportunities to build olam haba (the World to Come), to erase our averot (transgressions), to bring shefa (abundance), to bring Beracha to the world.