Sweeter than honey is
This is not meant to rule practical halachah; rather it’s to show the sweetness of learning.
Based on Rav Yitzchok Silberstein’s seforim
Who to Ask?
Of course to Rav Yitzchok Silberstein Shlita.
Who makes Torah learning so sweet & geshmak…
Sharon went to a massive Purim meal; it was full of people, and the music was booming. People were dancing, singing, and jumping away. Someone, who had already drunk a little wine, went over to Sharon and hugged him and said, “You are amazing! Can I become a chassid of yours?”
Sharon said, “You drank so much, you think I became Rebbe? You are very funny! If I also drink, maybe I will start to think I am a Chassidish Rebbe.”
Sharon quickly walked away and thought to himself, “What a funny conversation,” and bumped into an old friend, Naftuli.
“Naftuli, it is so good to see you!” Sharon said, “Can I become your Rebbe, I mean chassid?”
“Did you drink?” Naftuli asked.
“No, don’t worry,” Sharon said. “I was just joking with you. I don’t get really drunk. I follow the halacha that one can drink a little more wine than regular and I go to sleep.”
They continued schmoozing, and Sharon started talking about a certain family who had just moved away from town and said some not-nice things about the family, real lashon hara.
After Purim, Sharon called Naftuli to apologize for speaking to him about another family.
But before telling Naftuli why he called, Naftuli said, “I really wanted to call you, because I wanted to apologize. You see, I saw you were talking to me, but it was so noisy at the Purim party I couldn’t hear what you said. I was just shaking my head and saying, ‘Wow.’ Can I ask you to please repeat what you said? It seemed very important.”
Sharon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was so happy that Naftuli didn’t hear any of the lashon hara he spoke. But now he wasn’t even sure if he had done anything wrong, since no one had heard him speaking badly.
Was this considered speaking lashon hara?
Did You Drink?
What Sharon did was wrong.
- Chazal say that if one has in mind to sin and eat pork and eats the meat and then finds out it was a kosher meat. He is still wrong and must do teshuvah for having in mind to sin.
- In our case, Sharon had in mind to speak lashon hara, so he must do teshuvah for having in mind to do bad. (See the sefer Chafetz Chaim, hilchos lashon hara klal 4)
- The Chafetz Chaim mentions the Zohar (in the introduction to the Chafetz Chaim’s sefer) that says that when one speaks lashon hara, he brings bad to the world. One must be so careful about what they say.
- The family Sharon was speaking about wasn’t hurt by his bad speech, since no one even heard it. But according to the Zohar, when one speaks badly about someone, even if the other person doesn’t believe him or doesn’t even hear him, it is a terrible accusation on Klal Yisroel and brings bad to the world.
- In order to correct the wrong he did, since this is a sin between him and Hashem. He must do teshuvah, regret and confess his sin, and accept that in the future he will be better and not do this again. No one was affected, so no one needs to be asked for forgiveness.
