#621: Chattering Mouths
Stories relevant to Parashat Vayeshev
וַיֹּאמְר֖וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶל־אָחִ֑יו הִנֵּ֗ה בַּ֛עַל הַחֲלֹמ֥וֹת הַלָּזֶ֖ה בָּֽא׃
They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer!”
Gimme Some Torah #621
Joseph’s captivity, and Israel’s ultimate enslavement in Egypt, were partially due to the לְשׁוֹן הָרָע (leshon hara, wicked speech) that his brothers spoke to one another. The laws pertaining to leshon hara are more complicated than one would think. The undisputed master of the topic was Yisrael Meir Kagan (bio), better known as the Ḥafetz Ḥayim. Here are two brief stories about the Ḥafetz Ḥayim that illustrate his desire to avoid all wicked speech:
Of all the Sages of Israel in the latter generations, one who was particularly famous was Rabbi Yisrael Kagan of Radin, also known as the Ḥafetz Ḥayim, who was zealously wary of any thing that even smacked of leshon hara.
Once, the Ḥafetz Ḥayim was traveling in a stagecoach with several other passengers. Being extremely tired, he fell asleep. When he awoke from his nap, he heard the other passengers whispering amongst themselves. He immediately became concerned that they might be spreading slander and gossip. So he asked them, “My dear Jews, what are you talking about?”
The passengers all answered simultaneously: “We were talking about nothing in particular, just stagecoaches and horses!”
Suspicious about their probable lie, the Ḥafetz Ḥayim said to them in a fatherly tone, “Indeed it is better to talk about horses than about people.” (See Parpera’ot LaTorah by Menahem Becker (Jerusalem: Omen Publishing, 1983), vol. 1, page 176. Translation mine.)
And here’s a second such tale:
In his old age, the Ḥafetz Ḥayim became severely hard of hearing, and it was very difficult for him to listen to people’s conversations. Once, the great sage Rabbi Meir Shapiro, who was the dean of the Yeshivat Ḥakhmei Lublin, suggested to the Ḥafetz Ḥayim that he take the advice of expert physicians and have a surgery on his ears that would improve his ability to hear.
The Ḥafetz Ḥayim responded with a thin smile, “When the ears are open, they inevitably collect the irreversible sin of gossip and leshon hara. And now God has helped me in my old age so that it will not be within my ability to hear slander about Jews. Why should I do anything special so that I can better hear what people are saying about each other?”
Discussion Questions:
Regarding the first story, what do you think the passengers were really talking about?
Regarding the second story, how would you have responded to the Ḥafetz Ḥayim?
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Rabbi Eli Garfinkel is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth El in Somerset, New Jersey. He is the author of The JPS Jewish Heritage Torah Commentary.