A Fire, A Fate, A Coal, A חטע
By Zachary Fagan
A fire thrives on the destruction of its source. The faster the oil of a candle burns, the stronger and bigger the flame it produces. The fire burns and eventually there is no more oil, but it may have just caught onto something else, spreading its destructive path. Fire just so happens to look very beautiful, it tempts you to get closer, but you know better. It reels in its prey by mesmerizing them with its beautiful innocence, yet the ignorant will soon realize the fire has consumed him. He is shrouded with flame, no way to escape it. He screams in pain, wondering how the little fire could do so much damage, when he had thought it harmless. Eventually, he is burnt to a nothingness called ash, all because he didn’t suspect he needed to be careful.
If we are careless about how we speak and take the ability to talk for granted, we will always end up saying Lashon hara. Each time you say Lashon hara, it is creating an inextinguishable juniper coal that ruins lives. When we get lured into the innocence of speech, we burn to nothingness. We have to avoid this at all costs.
There was once two men going hiking and decided to camp at a shelter. In most of these trail shelters, there are logbooks where people who stayed there from previous nights can write a message. They open up the book and start reading, until they get to the last entry, signed from the night before. It said, “Beware of Backpacker Billy, he goes around shelters raiding those who use them.” This made them very frightened, but continued their day and one started to gather wood for a fire. Once he had a nice pile he put it in the middle of the fire-pit and went to his friend to get a match, but when he got back to the fire-pit he sees a very scary sight. The fire was lit and burning, yet he had used no matches. They instantly remembered the entry about Backpacker Billy, and were terrified with suspicions that he was in their presence. Later they were looking around, and they see a freshly cut juniper tree. They decided that whoever was there the night before must have used it for firewood, and knowing its properties believed that the coals from the burnt juniper had lit their fire. Later that night, they still couldn’t sleep, just because they were suspicious of Backpacker Billy.
This teaches two points, it shows how Lashon hara doesn’t go away. They were told about Backpacker Billy and despite knowing it wasn’t true, still believed it. Another thing it shows is that even a day later, juniper which seems extinguished can reignite a flame and create giant fires. So too, with Lashon hara it can at any point grow back into a much larger problem and cause conflict for many years.
Don’t speak Lashon hara, it isn’t worth it. It brings no real satisfaction, and causes so much trouble. Be strong and recognize that we could avoid it, and your relations with other people will improve. G-d gave us a double edged sword, use it to grow, but don’t let it cut you down. The second Beit HaMikdash was destroyed because of baseless hatred, this makes it seem like the easiest way for Mashiach to come and the Beit HaMikdash to be rebuilt is to eliminate the cause of hate. Let’s all work on this bad habit, especially with the high holidays approaching.
If we are careless about how we speak and take the ability to talk for granted, we will always end up saying Lashon hara. Each time you say Lashon hara, it is creating an inextinguishable juniper coal that ruins lives. When we get lured into the innocence of speech, we burn to nothingness. We have to avoid this at all costs.
There was once two men going hiking and decided to camp at a shelter. In most of these trail shelters, there are logbooks where people who stayed there from previous nights can write a message. They open up the book and start reading, until they get to the last entry, signed from the night before. It said, “Beware of Backpacker Billy, he goes around shelters raiding those who use them.” This made them very frightened, but continued their day and one started to gather wood for a fire. Once he had a nice pile he put it in the middle of the fire-pit and went to his friend to get a match, but when he got back to the fire-pit he sees a very scary sight. The fire was lit and burning, yet he had used no matches. They instantly remembered the entry about Backpacker Billy, and were terrified with suspicions that he was in their presence. Later they were looking around, and they see a freshly cut juniper tree. They decided that whoever was there the night before must have used it for firewood, and knowing its properties believed that the coals from the burnt juniper had lit their fire. Later that night, they still couldn’t sleep, just because they were suspicious of Backpacker Billy.
This teaches two points, it shows how Lashon hara doesn’t go away. They were told about Backpacker Billy and despite knowing it wasn’t true, still believed it. Another thing it shows is that even a day later, juniper which seems extinguished can reignite a flame and create giant fires. So too, with Lashon hara it can at any point grow back into a much larger problem and cause conflict for many years.
Don’t speak Lashon hara, it isn’t worth it. It brings no real satisfaction, and causes so much trouble. Be strong and recognize that we could avoid it, and your relations with other people will improve. G-d gave us a double edged sword, use it to grow, but don’t let it cut you down. The second Beit HaMikdash was destroyed because of baseless hatred, this makes it seem like the easiest way for Mashiach to come and the Beit HaMikdash to be rebuilt is to eliminate the cause of hate. Let’s all work on this bad habit, especially with the high holidays approaching.