Opening to Hilchos Lashon Hara and Rechilus (1)

Hashem loves His nation Israel and greatly wants what is good for them. He called them His children, His portion and His inheritance, and many other loving names that show His great love for Israel, as it says (Malachi 1:2), "I loved you, says Hashem." Because of this love, He kept them away from all bad character traits - and especially from lashon hara and rechilus. These bring Jews to fights, and fights can often lead to bloodshed. As the Rambam writes (Hilchos De'os 7:1): "Even though one receives no lashes for this negative command, it is a great sin and can lead to the killing of many souls in Yisroel." That is why it is placed next to the verse (Vayikra 19:16), "Do not stand by your neighbor's blood." Go and see what happened to Do'eg the Edomite and to Nov, the city of kohanim.

This disgusting trait also causes many other great evils. We know that the sin of the snake was mainly lashon hara: it spoke badly about Hashem, saying, "He ate from this tree and created the world." With this it tempted Chava, as Chazal (our sages) say (Shabbos 146a), "The snake came upon Chava and placed poison in her." So it brought immorality and death to the whole world - we see that it led to bloodshed. Through this it caused Adam and Chava to go against the will of the Holy One. So whoever speaks lashon hara is using the very trait that destroys the world.

Also, the main reason Israel went down to Egypt started with this sin, as it says (Bereishis 37:2), "Yosef brought evil report of them to their father." Because of this, Heaven decreed that he would be sold as a slave - measure for measure, since he had said that his brothers called some of their own brothers slaves.

And the whole reason for our present exile is the sin of the spies, as it says in Tehillim (106:26-27), "And He raised His hand against them to make them fall… and to scatter them in the lands," as Rashi explains there. So writes the Ramban on the Chumash in the story of the spies (Bamidbar 14:1). The Gemara in Arachin (15a) says that the main sin of the spies was lashon hara - speaking badly about the Land. Because they cried for no reason, crying for generations was decreed on them.

Many more evils, too many to count, came to us through this serious sin. All the sages killed by King Yannai in the days of Shimon ben Shetach (King Yannai's brother-in-law) were killed because of rechilus. And the killing of the Tanna Rabbi Elazar HaModai, which led to the destruction of Beitar, also came through rechilus, when they slandered him to Ben Koziva, as it says in the Midrash (Eichah Rabbah 2:4).