SEFER SHMIRAS HALOSHON ? The Quality of Peace ?
Through shmiras haloshon one is blessed with the precious quality of peace. By refraining from speaking ill of others, one ensures that he will not be the object of their enmity; to the contrary, others will love him and confide in him, and surely will not
speak ill of him.
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Peace is precious, for in its merit, God does not allow Satan to harm the Jewish people, even when idolatry is found among them (Bamidbar Rabbah?11:16).1
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One who accustoms himself to speaking favorably of others merits that God refers to him as Peace, which is one of God’s own Names.2 Conversely, with regard to the gossiper, the Sages state: “One who dines with his fellow and then speaks disparagingly of him
is referred to by the Holy One, Blessed is He, as, evil, as it is written, “Deceit in the heart of those who plot evil” (Mishlei?12:20).
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One who belittles others will, in the end, be the object of scorn — aside from the retribution that he will incur. The early commentators find an allusion to this in the verse, “Just as he inflicted a wound upon a person, so will be inflicted upon him” (Vayikra
24:20). Moreover, by speaking loshon hora, one becomes an object of contempt even in the eyes of his listener, who accepted his sinful words as truth. As the Sages put it, “False witnesses are contemptible even in the eyes of those who hire them” (Sanhedrin
29a). And his listeners will forever suspect that he might one day speak ill of them.
