The power of speech. The sages identified Sarat, the condition that affects human skin, fabric of

garments and the walls of a house, isn't an illness but a punishment, and not for any sin in general,

but for one in particular, that of Loshnhorah, Lashonhorah, evil speech, which prompts the

obvious question why evil speech, not some other sin.

Why should speaking be worse than say physical violence?

There's an old English saying, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.

It's unpleasant here, bad things said about you, but no more than that.

There's not even a direct prohibition against

evil speech in the Torah. There's a prohibition against gossip, Lotelech Rahil. Do not go around as a

gossiper among your people. Loshan horror is a subset of this larger command. Here's how Maimonides

defines it. There's a far greater sin that falls under the prohibition of

gossip, that is, the evil tongue, which refers to whoever speaks disparagingly of his fellow,

even though he speaks the truth. The sages go to remarkable lengths to emphasize its seriousness.

It is, they say, as bad as all three cardinals sense together, idle worship,

bloodshed, and illicit sexual relations. Whoever speaks with an evil tongue, they say is as if he

denied God. They also say it's forbidden to dwell in the vicinity of those with an evil tongue,

and all the more so to sit with them and listen to their words. So why are words

treated with such seriousness in Judaism? The answer touches on one of the most basic principles

of Jewish belief. There are ancient cultures who worship the gods because they saw them as powers.

Lightning, thunder, the rain, the sun, the sea and the ocean that epitomizes the force of chaos,

and sometimes wild animals that represented danger and fear. Judaism wasn't a religion that

worship power, despite the fact that God is more powerful than any pagan deity. Judaism, like other

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