Now, a chiddush like that needs explanation and so the Gemara right away tells us a few reasons why it’s so. Rabbi Elazar says when you harm somebody in money matters you're only taking away money from him; when you hurt his feelings, however, you're actually hitting him in his emotions. Even his internal organs are affected by it. He’s affected physically; his nerves, his heart, his mind is hurt.
We know that the Jews in the concentration camps when they were being whipped, beaten by Germans, they suffered more from the insults than from the blows. This the inmates repeated. When the Germans said, “Dirty swine,” “Filthy pigs,” that hurt more.
Don’t think that what you say just bounces off of people. Words that come out of your mouth can be like the piercings of a sword (Mishlei 12:18). Words are like arrows. They hurt. Actually hurt. You know that many times people have commited suicide because of an unkind word. They were already loaded down with so much discouragement, all they needed was one more word and they said, “forget it all.” A woman, a sensitive woman, told me that her husband almost killed her once. She wasn’t well and he came home and said something careless and he pierced her with a sword. He almost finished her off. Hurtful words are b’gufo, they physically affect a person.
