וַיִּשְׁלַ֡ח יְהוָה֩ אֱלֹהֵ֨י אֲבוֹתֵיהֶ֧ם עֲלֵיהֶ֛ם בְּיַ֥ד מַלְאָכָ֖יו הַשְׁכֵּ֣ם וְשָׁל֑וֹחַ כִּֽי־חָמַ֥ל עַל־עַמּ֖וֹ וְעַל־מְעוֹנֽוֹ׃
And the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent to them by His messengers, sending betimes and often; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place;
Rabbeinu Bahya
Consider that if righteous Miriam, the prophetess, who only spoke against her brother, who was older than he, and for whom she had put her life at risk and had said what she said without his ever hearing it was punished with the dread disease tzoraat, and all her accumulated merits did not protect her against this punishment, how much more reason do we normal mortals have to be circumspect and not become guilty of this sin. Consider further that Miriam had not really said something negative about Moses except that she had compared her and Aaron’s prophetic stature to that of her brother Moses.
In view of all these considerations it is easy to understand why the Torah looks askance at any assembly of fools, loiterers, people engaged in pointless and unproductive conversation. Solomon makes this plain in Kohelet 8,2 when he said that foolishness is the result of too much talk. Such talk will easily degenerate into sinful talk, character-assassination of one’s peers and the like. Once one has begun to speak disparagingly about one’s peers it is only a short step away from criticizing Torah scholars as we know from Psalms 31,19: “let lying lips be stilled that speak haughtily against the righteous with arrogance and contempt.” Once one is not afraid to speak about the righteous, one will start putting down G’d’s prophets, and in the end one will speak out against G’d Himself. We have examples of all this in Chronicles II 36,15: “but they mocked the messengers of G’d and disdained His words and taunted His prophets until the wrath of G’d against His people grew beyond remedy.” Compare also Psalms 73,9: “they set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth.” Who was the cause that they set their mouths against heaven? Their tongues which had begun by speaking about earthly matters.
In view of all these considerations it is easy to understand why the Torah looks askance at any assembly of fools, loiterers, people engaged in pointless and unproductive conversation. Solomon makes this plain in Kohelet 8,2 when he said that foolishness is the result of too much talk. Such talk will easily degenerate into sinful talk, character-assassination of one’s peers and the like. Once one has begun to speak disparagingly about one’s peers it is only a short step away from criticizing Torah scholars as we know from Psalms 31,19: “let lying lips be stilled that speak haughtily against the righteous with arrogance and contempt.” Once one is not afraid to speak about the righteous, one will start putting down G’d’s prophets, and in the end one will speak out against G’d Himself. We have examples of all this in Chronicles II 36,15: “but they mocked the messengers of G’d and disdained His words and taunted His prophets until the wrath of G’d against His people grew beyond remedy.” Compare also Psalms 73,9: “they set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth.” Who was the cause that they set their mouths against heaven? Their tongues which had begun by speaking about earthly matters.