SEFER SHMIRAS HALOSHON ?
Do Whatever You Can (II)
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“Do you really think that you can avoid everything that must not be spoken? Why, you are a man of the world, you have dealings with scores of people!” This was another argument cited above, which can lead a person to totally ignore the concept of shmiras haloshon.
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Again, we respond with an analogy: Let us suppose that I was hurrying somewhere to engage in a business enterprise. A man asks me, “Why do you hurry? Do you think that this enterprise will make you one of the world’s richest men, like So-and-so?” Surely I would
reply, “Is that a reason not to seek a livelihood for myself?!”
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If this response is correct when material matters are concerned, then surely it applies when spiritual matters are at stake. If one feels that he cannot abide by the laws of forbidden speech with all their details and fine points, does this mean that he should
refrain entirely from caring for his soul? Is it reason to allow oneself to, Heaven forbid, be counted among the ba’alei loshon hora (habitual gossipers) who will not merit to bask in the glory of the Divine Presence (Sotah 42a)?
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Reishis Chochmah (Sha’ar HaAhavah ch. 54) relates that R’ Moshe Cordovero 1 saw the author of Shushan Sodos in a dream [following the latter’s passing], and he was shining like the light of a torch. The deceased revealed that this was in merit of his having
avoided idle chatter while on this world. Should such merit be totally forfeited because one feels that to acquire it in its entirety is out of reach?
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The wisest of men declared, “Whatever you are able to do with your might, do it” (Koheles?9:10),
meaning that even if one feels he cannot fulfill a given mitzvah in all its fine points, nevertheless, he should strive to fulfill it to the best of his ability. It is in this vein that our Sages derived from the verse, “Then Moshe set aside three cities”
(Devarim?4:41),
that although those three cities could not afford refuge [to one who murdered inadvertently] until the three cities in the Land of Canaan had been set aside —and Moshe knew that he would not be permitted to enter the Land of Israel and set them aside —nevertheless,
Moshe said: “I will accomplish whatever is in my power to accomplish.”2
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1. Sixteenth-century Kabbalist, author of Tomer Devorah.
2. See Rashi, ad loc.
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