Lashon hara is literally translated into English as the evil tongue or more loosely translated as evil speech. Lashon hara are any words which harms a person emotionally, financially, physically or damage the person’s reputation.
Gossip vs. slander vs. lashon hara
In our culture, electronic communication is rapidly expanding. People comment on Facebook, post tweets, send text messages often more than they actually communicate orally with people. The inclination to give in to lashon hara can be great.
Gossip
There is a difference between gossip, slander and lashon hara. Gossip is telling information to others. The information may be factual or distorted. Gossip can occur as follows. You see an ambulance at a neighbor’s home. When you see another neighbor (neighbor B), you tell neighbor B, “Did you see an ambulance was at our neighbor’s house last night? I wonder what happened. You do know John has a bad heart. I wonder if he had a heart attack.”
Gossip often continues from person to person. Neighbor B may now take the information that John has a bad heart and make that the cause of the ambulance at the house. Neighbor B may now tell another neighbor, “John had a heart attack and an ambulance had to be called to take him to the ER.”
Gossip can be negative or positive. The intent of gossip is often to show others we possess information about the world around us. We know everything and are like an encyclopedia. Unfortunately, the information is often tainted with our own emotions and slant we give the story. Gossip is information shared which does not have the approval of the person of whom it is being told about.
For example, if a friend cannot attend Sunday School, she may ask you to tell the group she will be missing the event. If you tell the Sunday School group the friend will be absent, that is not gossip. If you find out from your friend’s husband the reason the friend’s absence, it would be gossip to tell the Sunday School class your friend is missing class because her son is sick in the hospital.
Slander
Slander is intentionally taking information and negatively distorting it. Slander is lying. An example of slander would be knowing Tom graduated as valedictorian of your high school class. You know Tom achieved high marks in all his classes. However, you decide to tell people Tom slept with the female teachers and that was the reason he graduated at as first in the class. The purpose of slander is to tear down the subject.
Lashon Hara
Lashon Hara is taking information, even true information, and presenting it in a negative way. Lashon hara is meant to hurt three people—it affects the person speaking it, the person who is the subject of the speech and the person hearing it.
One of the best examples of lashon hara is the ten spies being sent into the land of Canaan.
Numbers 13;1-3; 17-33
Questions Moses asks in verses 18-20:
What is the land like
Is the land good or bad
Are the cities like camps or strongholds
Is the land rich or poor
Are there forests in the land
The spies come back and do answer Moses questions in verses 26-29. Were the spies words untrue? Were there giants in the land? Did the land flow with milk and honey? What was wrong with the report?
Verse 32 tells us what wrong: it was an evil report. The ten spies told the Israelites in a negative way about the land. The words were true, but they way they fashioned them was evil.
We are guilty of this too. We can have an experience and give others all the details, but we can fashion our story to cast a bad light on the events.
The stories which often come to mind are stories about eating at restaurants or going to a hotel. Let’s explore going to restaurant.
Facts:
waited 25 minutes to be seated
arrived at a table which was dirty
server did not deliver our drinks until the end of the meal
took 45 minutes to pay for the meal
Just taking these details, we can spin a lot of stories from it. We can say how we had to wait 25 long minutes to be seated. The table was filthy and we were expected to sit at a dirty table. The server was lazy and did not bring our drinks until we were ready to leave. The staff didn’t know how to run a credit card through the register. These are all truths, but what if the framing was all wrong?
The wait was 25 minutes because the restaurant was extremely busy. The hostess actually had moved you up in the list because there were only two of you. She was able to separate some tables to get you a seat faster. Your table was dirty because the busboy was coming to clean off the table, but he slipped and dropped the bin of dirty dishes. He was cleaning that up and didn’t have time to tell the hostess your table was not cleaned off. The server did not bring your drinks because there was an issue with the soda dispenser. A manager worked on it and was finally able to get it working again. Your received the drinks at the end of the meal, but the drinks were on the house. It took 45 minutes to ring up the credit card because the high volume at the restaurant took down the phone line used to process the credit cards. An employee worked with IT and was able to get the credit cards back up and operating. You were given the option to pay with cash, but you did not have enough money in your wallet to cover the bill.
The evil of lashon hara
Lashon hara is considered the worst sin to commit according to Jewish scholars. There are three sins which are punishable by death: idolatry, adultery and murder. It is taught lashon hara is worse than these three sins. You may wonder why this is so.
When God created the world, He spoke it into existence. He used words to create the heavens and the earth. Everything God created was good. Man is created in the image of God. We are to use words to speak things into existence. However, the things we speak may be good or evil.
Lashon hara has the power to kill people. Our words can tear down other people. Our words can mentally abuse a person and cause the person financial ruin. Our words can even kill people. If we tell a child over and over again he is worthless and can’t do anything right, his future is often hampered by the constant abuse. If we continue with this evil speech over and over again, the child may find a way to end the suffering by killing himself.
Any time we cause harm to another human, we are harming God and His image. By speaking negatively about a person, we create evil.
Proverbs 18:19-21
19A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city,
And contentions are like the bars of a citadel.
20With the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied;
He will be satisfied with the product of his lips.
21Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Verse 21 of Proverbs 18 should make us aware that whatever comes out of our mouths, is the fruit of our lips. The fruit can be good or bad. Verse 21 tells us whatever we love, that is the fruit we will eat. This should startle us and make us take note. If we are prone to evil speech, we will devour not only what comes out of our mouth but also evil speech which comes out of other people’s mouths. If we are not careful to guard our speech, we will be likely to fall into the temptation of listening to other people’s lashon hara and believing the words which come forth from their mouths.
The Book of James warns us about the power of the tongue James 3:2-12:
2For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. 3Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. 4Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. 5So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.
See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. 11Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? 12Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.
Again, we see the pattern of labeling the words of our mouths as its fruit. Verse 12 gives us a warning that if our mouth is evil, we cannot expect it to produce good fruit. If we speak things which produce figs, we should not expect olives. Thus we can see, if we speak evil, we should not expect our fruit to produce love. Our fruit should be pleasing and good for everyone. It should be in line with what God create—things which are good.
Jesus says similar words, when he speaks about good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit:
43For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. 44For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. 45The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. (Luke 6:43-45)
Galatians 5 tells us what our fruits will be if we allow our fleshly selves rule, which includes speaking lashon raha
Galatians 5:19-21
19Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
We are told in the next verses of Galatians five what the fruit of seeking after the Spirit (and thus seeking to speak well of our brethren).
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
The punishment for lashon hara
At the moment, there is no direct punishment for lashon hara. We should guard our tongues, but if we speak evil against one another, nothing immediately happens. This has not always been the case.
God used to have a visible punishment against speaking evil. It was called tzara’at. Tzara’at may not be familiar to you because it is the Hebrew for a skin affliction which is often erroneously translated as leprosy in our English Bibles. Tzara’at is not leprosy. In the world of medical, the condition called leprosy has now been renamed Hansen’s Disease. Hansen’s Disease is a bacterial infection. The infection affects the nerves, respiratory tract, skin and eyes. Often, the bacteria damages the nerves and leaves the person unable to feel. Repeated damage to the skin will lead to skin infections.
If you read the conditions for tzara’at, Hansen’s Disease would not be considered tzara’at. Tzara’at includes many different skin manifestations such as having a sore turn white, if the sore is deeper than the skin, a scab, a swelling or a bright spot.
Moreover, tzara’at is not limited to the skin and is not a medical condition. Tzara’at can affect a person’s clothing and his home. A doctor did not diagnose a person with tzara’at, but the priest did. This again emphasizes tzara’at is not a health condition but something much deeper. Moreover, we will see from the text, people were allowed to return to the camp and return to their homes if they had a sore or skin marking, as long as it had not changed. If tzara’at was a medical condition like Hansen’s Disease, this would be the worst thing to do. Hansen’s Disease is caused by a bacteria. It can be spread from person to person.
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