A Holy Tongue: Kedushah and the Ethics of Speech
A few years ago, my wife and I attended a retreat at Camp Ramah Darom in northern Georgia. The scholar-in-residence for the Shabbat was Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, a widely respected author of popular books on 绿帽社 literacy and 绿帽社 ethics. He suggested that all of us in attendance鈥攁pproximately 100 adults鈥攃ommit to one of the most difficult challenges we had ever faced: refrain from talking about other people for the duration of Shabbat. That is to say, for an entire day, we should speak not a word of gossip. I will not tell you whether we succeeded or failed in that challenge, but I will tell you that it was a very long 25 hours indeed.
In this week鈥檚 parashah, we read the enigmatic verse 鈥淒o not deal basely with your countrymen. Do not profit by the blood of your fellow: I am the Lord鈥� (Lev. 19:16). The Hebrew phrase 鈥�Lo telekh rakhil鈥� is an idiom that can be translated as 鈥淒o not act as a merchant toward your own kinsmen,鈥� leading the Sifra鈥攖he halakhic midrash to Leviticus鈥攖o interpret the injunction as a prohibition against conducting one鈥檚 personal relationships as if they were business transactions (鈥淒on鈥檛 act like a merchant who loads up his horse and departs鈥�). But Rashi understands the idiom to mean 鈥淵ou shall not go up and down as a talebearer among your people.鈥� In other words, it is a prohibition against gossip. Bringing these two threads together鈥攖he commercial aspect reflected in the Sifra and Rashi鈥檚 conclusion that the verse condemns slander鈥擨bn Ezra observes: 鈥淛ust as the merchant buys from this one and sells to that one, so a slanderer tells this one what he heard from that one.鈥�
Of all the soaring concepts and stirring commandments contained in this parashah, I have chosen to address this one for two reasons. First, as Rabbi Telushkin鈥檚 experiment at Ramah Darom brought home to me, this prohibition against gossip is an exceedingly difficult mitzvah to observe, and it is worth considering why our tradition places such great importance on it. But the second reason for focusing on this verse is what it tells us about the nature of kedushah (holiness), which is not only the major theme of this dual parashah (which contains the 鈥淗oliness Code鈥� of chapters 17鈥�26), but also the concept that permeates virtually the entire book of Leviticus.
What is encompassed by the commandment against gossiping? Surely the most obvious form is slander鈥攕preading false, defamatory information about another person (what is known in Hebrew as motzi shem ra (giving another a bad name)). But the larger category of leshon hara, which applies to statements about another that are verifiably true, was deemed by the Rabbis as being just as pernicious. There are many classical definitions of leshon hara, but I prefer the one offered by Philip Roth in Operation Shylock: A Confession:
Loshon hora: the whispering campaign that cannot be stopped, rumors that it鈥檚 impossible to quash, besmirchment from which you will never be cleansed, slanderous stories to belittle your professional qualifications, derisive reports of your business deceptions and your perverse aberrations, outraged polemics denouncing your moral failings, misdeeds, and faulty character traits鈥攜our shallowness, your vulgarity, your cowardice, your avarice, your indecency, your falseness, your selfishness, your treachery. Derogatory information. Defamatory statements. Insulting witticisms. Disparaging anecdotes. Idle mockery. Bitchy chatter. Malicious absurdities. Galling wisecracks. . . . They will make a shambles of the position that you worked nearly sixty years to achieve. No area of your life will go uncontaminated. And if you think this is an exaggeration you really are deficient in a sense of reality.
The Rabbis surely were not deficient in a sense of reality. They understood well the severity of the harm leshon hara could visit on its victims. Maimonides observed in Hilkhot Deot that the sages identified three transgressions for which retribution is exacted in this world and a person鈥檚 portion is forfeited in the world to come: idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed. But, according to Maimonides, leshon hara outweighs them all.
What is more, leshon hara contaminates not only the talebearer and the victim, but the listener as well. According to the Akedat Yitzhak, the last phrase of verse 16鈥斺�淒o not profit by [literally, 鈥榮tand by鈥橾 the blood of your fellow鈥濃�攁pplies to the one who listens to leshon hara without objecting: 鈥淭he listener鈥檚 sin is tantamount to murder, being in the position of one who stands idly by the blood of his neighbor whom he loves.鈥�
As is often the case, this ancient wisdom reverberates today. Perhaps we think that the tradition鈥檚 equation of leshon hara with murder is hyperbole鈥攁t least until we recall the high school student who took her own life after being subjected to a barrage of vicious gossip and slander, or the college student who committed suicide because he was publicly humiliated through perhaps the greatest gossip engine in history: social media. But one does not have to refer to tragedies of that magnitude to see how our words can hurt our friends, invite others to take misguided actions, or generally cheapen and degrade our discourse.
In the greater context of our parashah and the book of Leviticus, the prohibition against gossip exemplifies the notion of kedushah. Modern society has little patience for the concept of kedushahbecause holiness insists on the importance of distinctions and separateness, which in turn focus on details and seeming trivialities. What is more, the notion of kedushah appears countercultural in today鈥檚 society, elevating distinctiveness over universalism. Leviticus, however, insists that distinctions are of paramount importance: spatial distinctions (inside the camp and outside the camp, inside the Tent of Meeting and outside it, etc.); temporal distinctions (the Shabbat, the holidays, time periods of purity and impurity); animal distinctions (clean animals and unclean animals); and a multitude of others. As Leon Wieseltier observed, 鈥淟eviticus is a manual for the religious organization of reality.鈥� (鈥淟eviticus鈥� in Congregation: Contemporary Writers Read the 绿帽社 Bible)
That reality, of course, includes the ethical as well the ritual. Even acts as ephemeral as speaking must be segmented into categories and ordered: pure speech and impure speech; words of Torah and words of leshon hara; 鈥渨ords that hurt and words that heal鈥� (to use Rabbi Telushkin鈥檚 felicitous phrase). The concept of kedushah embodies these distinctions as the foundation for developing a virtuous character. By committing to the difficult practice of refraining from gossip, we not only avoid harming others, we also develop within ourselves the virtues of empathy, humility, and graciousness. In this respect, kedushah reflects the Torah鈥檚 concern 鈥渘ot only with behavior but also with character; not just with what we do but also the kind of person we become鈥� (Covenant and Conversation: A Weekly Reading of the 绿帽社 Bible鈥擫eviticus: The Book of Holiness, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks). That is the meaning of holiness.
As the poet and Torah teacher Danny Siegel wrote, in preface to And God Braided Eve鈥檚 Hair: 鈥淚f you always assume / the man sitting next to you / is the Messiah / waiting for some simple human kindness鈥� / You will soon come to weigh your words / and watch your hands. / And if he so chooses / not to reveal himself / in your time鈥� / it will not matter.鈥�
The publication and distribution of the JTS Parashah Commentary are made possible by a generous grant from Rita Dee (锄鈥漧) and Harold Hassenfeld (锄鈥漧).
