LASHON HARA
Every year at this time of year, we are given a resurgence of chizuk and inspiration in the area of lashon hora. We learn again how powerful words are and how much damage they can cause, and we see with clarity just how far-reaching negative statements can be.
Rashi, right at the beginning of the parashah, asks why the parashah of the meraglim is placed next to the parashah of Miriam and her error in the words she said about her brother Moshe. Rashi explains that the meraglim were meant to learn from her punishment, not to say the lashon hora themselves; R'l, unfortunately, they did not learn the mussar.
The questions abound; my Rav, Rav Binyomin Forst shlita, asked the following: First, the most obvious issue is that Miriam spoke about Moshe Rabbeinu; what mussar, then, should they have taken, if, at the end of the day, they spoke only about a land? Furthermore, of all examples that the Torah could have used to describe a classic case of lashon hora, why did it specifically choose the case of negative words about Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest man who ever lived?
And why, asked Rav Forst, is tzaraʼas the punishment for lashon hora? And why was the punishment of the meraglim mandated for 40 years because of the 40 days? After all, wasn't the actual lashon hora they spoke only on one day?
My Rav then beautifully explained: We must appreciate that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is Kulo Tov, and He created the entire world only to bestow good. A person, the creation of Hashem Yisbarach, yetzir kapav, is a Tzelem Elokim and the manifestation of the tov of Hashem.
When a person speaks lashon hora and tries to find faults in this tov called man, he is tampering with the tov of Hashem, kaviyachol. That is why the Torah uses the example of Moshe Rabbeinu – because Moshe Rabbeinu is the greatest example of Tzelem Elokim possible, to show us what all lashon hora really is: It is tampering with Tzelem Elokim....
In that vein, explained my Rav, while the holiness found in nefesh is in man, the holiness found in place is in Eretz Yisrael. Eretz Yisrael is the land that the Shechinah is connected to; thus, saying lashon hora about Eretz Yisroel was really the same as saying it about Moshe Rabbeinu! For tampering with the goodness in a Jew is very similar to tampering with the goodness of Hashem's land! And that, therefore, is the mussar that the meraglim should have understood.
The question remains, though, why is tzaraʼas the punishment for lashon hora? The answer is that since a person looked for the bad in someone else, he must learn from there to focus on his own faults instead. The blemish found on the body teaches him this most vital message for life.
But why were the meraglim punished for forty years if their sin was literally only the lashon hora said that one time? The answer to this is really a fundamental principle of lashon hora. It is true that the meraglim spoke the words of lashon hora on that one final day, but the words they said had been percolating in their thoughts for the forty previous days. It was not just a momentary statement that formed the lashon hora; it was a mindset. A mindset created by days and days of negative thoughts in their minds as they traveled through the holy land of Eretz Yisrael.
And yes, surely these were exceedingly great men, with greatness we cannot fathom; nevertheless, the lesson of the very great tragedy that they brought about will always remain. Our obligation is to try our utmost to perceive every Jew in a positive light, as he is a Tzelem Elokim and a child of HaKadosh Baruch Hu; and the mindset that we create in ourselves of positivity will result in our speaking only good words about each other... and that will surely impact redemption.... B'Siyata DiShmaya.
