Musar su Deuteronomio 27:24

First of all, the episode of the serpent, who spoke lashon hara of the Holy One Blessed be He and thereby brought death to the world. And (Bereshith 29:20): "If G-d will be with me and guard me," concerning which Chazal have said: "if He will guard me against lashon hara." And the episode of Joseph (Ibid. 37:2): "And Joseph brought their evil talk to their father," this being the catalyst of the descent of the Jews to Egypt. And (Shemoth 2:14): "In truth, the thing has become known" (see Rashi there and what we shall write below). There, too, (4:1) Moses our teacher, may peace be upon him, says: "But they will not believe me," and the Blessed L-rd counters (Ibid. 2): "What is this in your hand?" … (3) …and it became a serpent." Also there (6): "And, behold, his hand was leprous as snow." And (Ibid. 17:2): "And the people quarreled with Moses… (7) …over the quarrel of the children of Israel, etc." followed by (8): "And Amalek came and warred with Israel, etc." And (Ibid. 23:1): "You shall not bear a false report, which applies to both the speaker and the receiver [of lashon hara] (as we find in Makkoth 23a), followed by (2): "Do not be after many to do evil." And, in reference to the me'il [the outer robe of the ephod] (Ibid. 28:32): "A border shall there be to its mouth roundabout," and the entire section. And (35): "And its sound will be heard when he comes to the sanctuary, etc." And the entire section of Tazria and Metzora: the plague-spots of houses, the plague-spots of clothing, the plague-spots of men, (Vayikra 13:46): "Solitary shall he sit"— even outside of the camp of Israel. And his atonement— "chirping" birds. And (Ibid. 19:16): "Do not go talebearing among your people," (Ibid. 17): "Reprove, shall you reprove your neighbor, but you shall not bear sin because of him." And (Ibid. 25:17): "You shall not wrong, one man, his fellow," which relates to verbal wronging, which is also in the category of evil speech. And (Bamidbar 5:1): "And they shall send out of the camp every leper"— even if he were as great in Torah as Doeg. And (Ibid. 12:1): "And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, etc." And the entire section of Shelach Lecha, which speaks about the spies. And (Ibid. 21:5): "And the people spoke against G-d and against Moses." And (Devarim 23:10): "When you go out as a camp against your foes, guard yourself against every evil thing [davar ra]," concerning which Chazal have said: "davar ra" may be read as "dibbur ra" [evil speech]. And in Tetze, the "giving out of an evil name [motzi shem ra]," and (Ibid. 24:9): "Remember what the L-rd your G-d did to Miriam, etc." And (Ibid. 27:24): "Cursed be he who smites his friend in secret," which refers to lashon hara. And it is known that all of the "cursings" were preceded by blessings; and they opened with blessing, saying: "Blessed is he who does not smite"— whence we derive that one who is heedful in this is blessed.

And, in truth, how much should the speaker of lashon hara be ashamed of himself because of this. For if he were called up to the Torah and found the verses there to concern the issur of speaking lashon hara (such as Vayikra 19:16: "Do not go talebearing among your people," or Devarim 27:24: "Cursed is he who smites his friend in secret," or Ibid. 24:9: "Remember what the L-rd your G-d did to Miriam," or Shemoth 23:1: "Do not bear a false report," and the like) and the point of a yod were missing in some place, he would refuse to make the blessing on the Torah, saying that the Torah of the L-rd must be perfect, as the Holy One Blessed be He gave it to us, and not defective. He believes, then, in truth, in the Blessed L-rd and in His holy Torah, in all of its letters, but when that subject comes to hand, immediately the verses of the Torah are abandoned by him, and he does not think it a sin at all! Remember, my brother, what we find in Tanna d’bei Eliyahu Rabbah, Chapter 28: "If one recognizes words of Torah and 'passes them by,' he is an absolute evildoer."

And thus, exactly, is the man of lashon hara. Aside from always probing the houses of the city in order to have what to relate thereafter in the marketplace, he is versatile in changing. For when he is adversely publicized as one who goes peddling [his tales] from one to the other and becomes like a thorn in the eyes of the people of the city, and everyone guards himself against him, he walks on the sides of the public thoroughfare, enwrapped in silence, as if nothing concerns him, in order to spy out everything going on in the city — secret and otherwise. And, correspondingly, when he tells his lashon hara and rechiluth [talebearing], he does so deceptively, as if speaking in pure innocence, not telling the whole story, but intimating — whereby his interlocutor "figures out the rest." And his ears drag, and his tail hangs between his legs. There also applies to him what was said about the aforementioned dog. That is, even though there burn in his midst all the senses of feeling, and, especially, that of hearing, to hear of everything that is done in the city and to run and peddle it from one to the other — in spite of this, in public, he appears to the eye of the beholder as one who suppresses all of his feelings, is equable to all, and wants to hear nothing of what is done among people — all, so that the people of the city not guard themselves against him and everything be revealed to him. "And others say: He also barks without being heard." For in his lashon hara, he wounds in secret (as do those writers of wrongs [called "paskevilim"], about whom it is written (Devarim 27:24):"Cursed be he who smites his neighbor in secret.") — all so that his neighbor will be unable to guard himself against him and he will be able to attack him, like the aforementioned dog. Therefore, there reposes upon him the same spirit of uncleanliness that reposes upon a mad dog, and the Sifrei refers to him as "one bitten by a dog." For upon him, too, there reposes the spirit of uncleanliness. [The end of the comparison is self-explanatory. See the end of Chapter 16.]