If a person desires life, they should be careful not to speak lashon hara. This means eternal life as well as the “good life” in this world. It all boils down to how you speak.
The author of the book, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (1839-1933) of Poland, compiled the many, intricate laws of lashon hara from Talmudic sources and commentaries in order to help the Jewish People combat the difficult challenge of cleansing our communities of lashon hara.
In the very next verse in Psalms, there is another powerful lesson of personal growth: “Turn away from wrongdoing and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Psalms 34:15).
The verse first mentions turning away from wrongdoing and afterwards tells us to do good. The appropriate order for developing peaceful speech patterns, and for many similar things, is first to remove the bad and then replace it with good.
Based on this idea, the Clean Speech campaign was created to help us remove harmful and hurtful words from our social interactions.
A next step would be to fill our conversations with positive words. Affirming words, encouraging words, complimentary words. Not only must we refrain from damaging the people around us with lashon hara, we should build them up with respectful, positive words.
Just as lashon hara is so powerfully harmful, speaking in a respectful and complimentary way is powerfully helpful. After all, according to the 16th President of the United States of America Abraham Lincoln, “Everybody likes a compliment.”
Stopping the damage comes first, followed by building and repairing. That’s the formula for creating shalom, peace.
Today’s Daily To-Do is to catch yourself before saying something negative about someone today, and replace it with a compliment.