Lashon Hara - the easiest of sins - a Haazinu thought

This week's contribution to the Jewish Star - complete with a Yom Kippur wish for all.

Unblinking, heaven and earth bear witness

Parshat Ha’azinu

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of September 25, 2009/ 7 Tishrei 5770

There are a number of verses in Tanach that call upon the heavens and the earth to bear witness, or to at least lend an ear to the proceedings. In the Torah, they are all in Devarim: 4:26, 30:19, 31:28 and 32:1 — the last one is the first verse in Ha’azinu.

In Navi, the most famous example (because it is the second verse of the haftarah of Shabbos Chazon) is in Yeshayahu 1:2.

Commentaries discuss why the heavens and earth are appointed witnesses. They last forever (Rashi); they can give reward or mete out punishment (also Rashi); they include the angels and all of humanity (Ibn Ezra); Moshe was close to the heavens at that point in his life (Rabeinu Bachaya); The heavens house all souls and earth houses physical bodies (Sha”kh).

In anticipation of Yom Kippur, many of us look back on the previous year and reflect. We may have had a good year — births, bar or bat mitzvah, a wedding. Maybe your child graduated, you graduated, or someone began a new chapter in life, in a new job, profession, or vocation.

Some of us may have had a difficult year — financial setbacks, unemployment, a death in the family, disappointment in schooling, a breakup of an intense relationship.

I have never been a fan of finger pointing. In the sociological history of Judaism, different generations have tried to blame the ills of their times on certain behaviors of the Jewish community.

Perhaps most famously, the destructions of the two great Temples in Jerusalem were blamed, respectively, on murder, idolatry and promiscuity (Temple I) and on baseless hatred (Temple II). As these reasons come from the prophets and the rabbis of the Talmud, who contained a different gestalt of G-d than exists today, we can accept these as truth.

But when modern ills are blamed on certain misdeeds, it takes a certain faith in those making such proclamations to accept their postulations as truth.

So instead of blaming bad tidings on talking during davening or mixed dancing at weddings or co-ed pizza stores, let us just say good things sometimes happen and bad things sometimes happen.

And yet, there is one thing we all do that is so hard to overcome. So difficult that I feel if we were to improve in this area, the merits in our favor could only stem the tide for the good.

Close to half of the “Al Chets” we recite in Viduy on Yom Kippur relate to this one overarching theme of bad behavior. Yes, there are admissions we make to bad business ethics and to not being careful regarding the food we put in our mouths. But the major theme that repeats itself over and over is similar lack of care regarding what comes out of our mouths, also known as lashon hara.

As clichéd as it sounds, it is the truth.

Perhaps this is why we call upon the heavens and earth to bear witness. Of all witnesses in the world, the heavens and earth see what they see, observe what they observe, but they do not have the power of speech. They cannot speak ill of the things we say or do. They can merely bear witness and act accordingly, as per the whim of the Creator of the World.

Furthermore, the first verse of our parsha reads: “Listen heaven! I will speak! Earth! Hear the words of my mouth!” (Devarim 32:1)

When we specifically call upon heaven and earth to hear the “words of my mouth” as they bear witness, would it not behoove us to be certain that the “words of our mouths” are worthy of being heard by witnesses who last forever and who will never forget the things we’ve said?

It is extremely hard to check ourselves and to consider everything we say all the time, before we say it. So let us start small. Would we want what we say to be repeated? Would we say it in front of the person about whom we are speaking? Is our conversation serving a purpose beyond idle chatter?

When the answer is “no,” it is better not to say it. Remember, the heavens and the earth are bearing witness.