A Secret Gift

A Secret Gift:

The pasuk in Mishlei (21:14) states: “A gift in secret will appease wrath.”

It is said in the name of the Kotzker Rebbe zy”a that this pasuk can be explained as follows: If a person is careful not to speak any lashon hara or words of mockery, he is considered to be on the level of “one who gives a gift in secret.” This is because no one knows what he is thinking in his heart, so no one knows that he had something negative to say and chose not to. Only Hashem, who knows every thought a person has, knows what was in this person’s heart. And only He knows that this person could have spoken badly about someone else but chose to give that person a gift in secret by withholding his negative words.