Welcome to the Chofetz Chaim Daily, Nishmat Yosef Ben Avraham. Today we're going to learn an interesting lesson: the source of exile. That means that sometimes a person can, unfortunately, be so abused that they already forget what it means to be a normal human being. They get so used to being abused that they forget that they're being abused. That could probably be the lowest level a person can get to, chas veshalom, to forget their true identity.
We, as the Jewish people, the Am HaNivchar, the chosen nation, were chosen by Hashem to be the special people close to Him. Hashem chose us with a special land called Eretz Yisrael (Israel), and Hashem gave us the Beit HaMikdash. Unfortunately, we were kicked out of Israel. Unfortunately, the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed. But we still have the identity of being a Jew, which will never ever be taken away from us, says the Chofetz Chaim.
But what's going to bring us back, to leave the abusive life that we're in right now in Galut (exile)? As long as we are in Galut, we can never reach the level of spirituality that we could, which ultimately means we can never enjoy our lives as much as we could if we're in exile. We want to be in Eretz Yisrael with the Beit HaMikdash, with Melech HaMashiach, with Shoftim, with the right judges, with the right set of laws.
How do we bring back the Beit HaMikdash? How do we bring back Israel? How do we do it? The Torah tells us clearly, over and over and over again. Chazal (the Sages) tell us what the recipe of medicine is—the recipe that's going to give us a refuah that's going to heal us from our exile. The problem is that our mouths don't stop speaking Lashon Hara (evil speech). That's a problem. It's an unbelievable thing, says the Chofetz Chaim.
Imagine you have a person, unfortunately, who's sick in bed in the hospital. That person is very weak, and all the doctors are trying. He's going from one doctor to another doctor, from one clinic to another clinic. It should never happen to any person. Imagine there was a doctor who lived miles and miles away who had the cure for this medicine. Every family member or friend is going to try their best to reach that doctor. If you have the cure, if all it takes is to travel to you, obviously we're going to get it done, because we want to heal our relative. We want him to be well.
Says the Chofetz Chaim, over here we know what the medicine is to take us out of exile. It's not that we don't know. It's not that Hashem is hiding from us why the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed. Hashem is telling us what the problem was and how we can fix it to come right back. We know the medicine. And the medicine is the medicine of the Chofetz Chaim. The medicine is right here. It's between us. Are we actually going to stop speaking Lashon Hara? What does it take to bring Mashiach? What does it take to build the Beit HaMikdash? To actually stop speaking Lashon Hara?
So today's lesson is the source of exile, which means: don't forget that you are in exile. That's one. And two, how do you stop the exile? The medicine is clear. The cure is clear. The recipe is clear. Try your best to stop speaking Lashon Hara.