Bein Adam LeChavero

Question

Thanks for your response 🙂

Unfortunately, I struggle with the mitzvah of shmirat anyim everyday – even though I have seforim and online to help overcome it. This sin is done only between man and God. There is no direct harm a Jew can do upon another Jewish person. However, the sin of lashon hara and rechilut has the potential to harm another Jewish person which is between man and man. Many people don’t realize the powerful impact of their words that can ” kill ” another Jewish soul.

My questions here is after the paragraph below and thanks a million for your precious time in reading the entire e-mail

For example, a Jewish married man or a group of Jews familiar with a name of a certain Jewish single – they constantly make fun of him behind his back, and degrading his reputation status to the point that either this man committed suicide due to mounting pressure of shame OR speaking badly that resulted in a a long delay of time to get married OR even worse robbed away his happiness by remaining single until the end of his life.

1) How many in the entire Torah pasukim in common that describes such an incident like here – 1 2 or 3 like “Do not murder” and so and so…..
2) Is it a such a harder struggle for many Jews to uphold shmirat halashon more than shmirat anayim?

3) How does Hashem deal with such a person – he loses a chelek in olam haba for “killing” another Jew or what….?
4) And lastly, what is the kapparah a person can do to mechaper the averiah he did? — but it doesn’t do any help to the Jewish soul who cried and missed his lifetime opportunity in finding shared happiness between man and wife.

Thanks again and tzche limitzvos

0

Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    I apologize but I am not sure that I understand your first question.

    No, I do not think so. I think that they are both equally difficult.

    If a person does Teshuvah for having spoken Lashon Harah or Rechilus then they do not lose anything in the Spiritual Realms. If they do not do Teshuvah they will be punished for their deeds – just as with any other sin that requires Teshuvah that was not done. I am not familiar with a source that teaches that a person who speaks Lashon Harah from time to time loses their place in the World to Come. What is true is that Chofetz Chaim makes a clear differentiation between someone who speaks Lashon Harah on occasion and someone who speaks Lashon Harah habitually who is labelled as a Ba’al Lashon Harah, see Hilchos Lashon Harah 1:3. The Talmud, Erchin 15b, states categorically that a habitual Lashon Hara speaker loses their place in the World to Come because they are causing a Chillul Hashem.

    Rabbeinu Yonah, Shaarei Teshuvah 1:47, explains that someone who has transgressed the prohibition of Chillul Hashem may atone for their transgression by engaging in the Mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem. According to Rabbeinu Yonah, this means that the Ba’al Teshuvah “Should support the truth…bring its light to the eyes of the people, and strengthen those who hold to the truth and elevate them…they will be forgiven for the sin of Chillul Hashem, together with Teshuvah…”

    Rabbeinu Yonah also writes that the path to genuine rectification is to always be careful and to avoid any kind of a situation that might let it happen again in the future. Rabbeinu Yonah teaches that if one is successful at doing so they have proved in the most definite way possible that they have atoned for what they did in the past.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team