Help Us Cure LaShon HaRa by Rabbi Yaron Reuven (Introducing Rabbi Daniel Hershko CD) (12 minutes)

0:39about lashon hara, but not just any opinion about lashon hara. Hey, you shouldn't do it, guys. 150 times Rabbi Dani delves into the depths of lashon hara in the Chafetz Chaim, and he goes detail after detail on what it actually says. I haven't listened to or watched all of the lectures, but in a few that I heard, he says He gave a few lectures, maybe six, about lashon hara concerning rabbis. When people speak lashon hara about rabbis, they might say, "Hey, I don't like this rabbi," or "Hey, this rabbi is a jerk," or "Hey, this rabbi talks too much," or "Hey, this rabbi looks funny." People say all types of things about rabbis, and then they make comments on the internet about them. Yesterday, you know, I always like to look at how these things affect people's perceptions. look at the comments after the shiurim on live or on YouTube. I look at the comments; I don't always reply. Most of the time, I don't reply. There are too many comments; I can't reply to all of them.

1:44I like to look at the comments to see what people say also. I like to see who's watching. So, people say hi from Malaysia. Somebody in Malaysia is watching. Somebody in Malaysia is learning Torah with us. Hi from Tahiti. Hi from Buenos Aires. Hi from Texas. Hi from all different places around the world. People are watching the shiur. Later on, they make some nice comments and... But once in a while, you get this 'menuval' that has to go in there. There's always a 'menuval.' There's always someone that's despicable. It's always someone that's despicable that has to ruin the party. Sometimes they bring their idol worship and say, "Oh, JC Penny, go worship him." So some people respond to them, "Yeah, if we worship, we'll go to Gehinom. Why would we want to do it? Go away." Sometimes they try to missionize in a group, and I always tell people not to reply to these people. They feed off of your reply. If you don't reply, they eventually go away, like a fly. But if you respond to them, you're giving them some interaction over here, and their whole goal is being Amalek. What is the goal of Amalek? Amalek's goal is to cool you down.

3:04That's his goal. Amalek's goal is not to kill you physically. Amalek's goal is to kill you spiritually, to cool you down, make you have questions, and make sure that you're not paying attention to the answers. Make sure that you're not doing teshuva. So, if you're answering these fools that are talking about avodah zarah and all types of other nonsense, you're not listening to the shiur Torah. You're not listening to the shiur Torah. What are you doing online then? You might as well go read a book. So don't answer these people ever. If you're ever online watching a shiur, don't answer anybody. In general, don't talk in the comments. If you want to say hi, say hi. Just acknowledge that you watched. But in general, don't engage in discussions because it defeats the whole purpose of watching a lecture. If you don't focus, you're not going to listen to the lecture. The main point is listening to the lecture, not chatting with people. If you want to teach, go give a shiur of your own. Some people go online and try to teach instead of listening. Oh, you know, I heard this, and then somebody else ends them. Oh, yeah, but I heard something else. Oh, you realize you're disturbing 3,000 people right now with your comment, ding, ding, ding, ding every two seconds. Not everybody knows how to disable it. Not everybody else is young and smart like you. I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to disable comments. So, the thing is, though, that people make foolish comments, and sometimes they make comments that...

4:30...is most surprising, but not surprising. What's surprising or not surprising? They are actually religious Jews, and they don't like to hear the truth. So yesterday, for example, this so-called religious Jew makes a comment. I was talking about modesty in last night's shiur, and I was explaining to women how the skirts have to be long, and so on and so forth. And this person, probably a woman, did not like it. And she said, "You should be ashamed of yourself. The length of a woman's skirt is none of your business." So why are we, if it's none of my business, why are we learning Torah then? Nothing is my business, nothing is your business, nothing is anybody's business. Go back to Sedom and Amorah. Do whatever you want. Why are you a religious Jew then? You tell people what the halacha is, you tell people what the truth is, and they don't like to hear it sometimes. So, people make these types of comments. Now, why do I mention this? What is this whole introduction for? The problem with making such a comment is that, for me, I don't really care. I laugh at it. It's funny to me. I think it's very sad that people think that their comment against me is actually going to change my mind or make me stop talking about it. It doesn't change anything for me. The problem is not with me.

5:52Problem is with Hashem. Why is the problem with Hashem? Because when you make a comment publicly against a rabbi, that could easily discourage another person from watching him. You have now taken that person's soul, and it's in your hands. That rabbi could have easily helped that person do teshuvah. He had the right words; Hashem gave him the right words and... Say that specific person is gonna say, "Ah, you know what? I'm gonna do teshuva. Oh, Shabbat. I mean, I never knew it's that serious. I'm gonna start keeping it. Oh, lashon hara. I never knew it's that serious. I'm gonna stop talking so much. Oh, the duck. I didn't know that Hashem wanted me to be honest with my business, even if it's with this. People don't know, so sometimes there's a specific speaker that's gonna say what you need to hear. Now if that speaker logged on and... He saw that someone made a negative comment about the rabbi. It's like, who wants to be a part of this? People don't like this guy. So he turns it off and instead turns on, I don't know, a show about ducks being rescued from the highway. Instead, he doesn't do teshuva. Whose fault is it? It's not the rabbi's fault. Whose fault is it? It's the imbecile that made the comment, thinking that they're going to change something. The only thing they changed is they changed their Gan Eden into a Gehenom.

7:12That's the only thing they changed. A person can lose their Olam HaBa in a second. One second, they can lose their Olam HaBa. The people that went against David HaMelech that we talked about last time I was here, they were heads of the Sanhedrin. They weren't just regular people, sometimes keep Shabbat, sometimes not, maybe go to the casino a few times a year. No! These were head Rabbanim, these were Gedolei HaDor. Doleado lost their olam haba. Why the lashon hara, the lashon hara? The Rambam in Mishneh Torah says that someone who speaks lashon hara once in a while has a deen. It's a very horrible, horrible sin. Of course, we're not talking about, as he says in his language, someone... Someone who speaks Lashon Hara on a regular basis has nothing to speak of; he has no Olam Haba. Someone who speaks Lashon Hara once in a while could potentially lose their Olam Haba, depending on how severe it is. Someone who speaks it regularly has no chance. No chance.

8:30Hey, how are you? Oh, did you see what she was wearing? Oh, did you see how much money he made? Hey, did you see how much he did this and how? You keep Shabbat, Tefillin, Rabbeinu Tam, Rashi, Arizal—three Tefillin you have in your head. You keep Shabbat every day. Seven days a week you have Shabbat. It's not going to help you. Saying Lashon HaRa, people are destroying Neshamot. Someone said this story. In the name of Socrates, I always doubt the name-dropping that people engage in. But let's say it's his name. Say somebody came to him and said, "Hey, I have a story to tell you about your friend." He said, "Wait, before you tell me the story, I want to ask you a few questions. Sure. Is it true?" Is the story you're about to tell me about my friend true? He says, to be honest with you, I'm not really sure. I heard it from somebody else. Okay. Is what you're about to tell me a compliment about my friend? Is it something good about my friend? No, quite the opposite. It's actually that she was caught doing something wrong. No, it's definitely not a compliment.

10:04What you're about to say raises questions about its usefulness for me. Is it gonna help me in my life? He says, come to think of it, probably not. No, it's really not gonna affect you in any way, because, so let me get this straight: you're about to tell me something about my friend that you're not really sure is true, you didn't verify, you didn't see it with your own eyes. It's definitely not a compliment to my dear friend. It's not gonna help my friend, and it's not gonna help me. That's Lashon Hara. That's Lashon Hara. That's Lashon Hara 99.9% of the time. That's Lashon Hara. Now Rabbi Dani is here to help you. Rabbi Dani made a series. These are three CDs. Be'ezrat Hashem, more are gonna come out. 150 lectures. You have to watch this stuff. It's short lectures, 15 minutes, a half-hour, on the way to work, in the gym. You have to listen to this stuff, sometimes two or three times, the same lecture. Because he really delves into the Chafetz Chaim, halacha by halacha, understanding why this, why that. So now you don't go up to Shamayim and say, "Oh no, no, they didn't tell me. They didn't tell me." He told you. You have a CD. How much? Free. Free. You save your neshama for free.

11:30So I brought you some. If anyone didn't get, I have more. So you have that. It's on YouTube. He has a website also. He's also in my groups, the WhatsApp groups. He posts in my WhatsApp groups. So, Baruch Hashem, he does some really good stuff, some really good work, Baruch Hashem. He's a lover of Hashem; he's a lover of Am Yisrael. And there's not many people like that in the world, unfortunately. So, when you find somebody good, you should cleave to them.