This is from Rabbi Moshe Dovid Berman, Laureate of the Kollel Hora'ah of America.
I think it is a wonderful insight!
Seeing the Good
R' Moshe Dovid Berman
The sin of the spies in this week’s Parsha is juxtaposed with the story of Miriam at the end of last weeks Parsha. Rashi quotes from the Medrash that this is in order to highlight the fact that the spies didn’t learn from Miriam the severity of speaking Lashon Horah. One may ask: What sin is there speaking Lashon Horah regarding a land? A land is inanimate, has no feelings and cannot be hurt, so what is wrong with speaking negatively about it? We could understand if the spies were punished for doubting Hashem’s ability to bring the Jewish people into Eretz Yisroel; but why were they punished for speaking evil about the land?
In truth one can ask the same regarding Miriam: When Miriam spoke Lashon Horah about Moshe, Moshe was not in any way harmed, nor did he feel slighted, as the Torah testifies והאיש משה עניו מכל אדם אשר על פני האדמה. Yet she was still punished. Perhaps we could infer from this that aside for the harm done to the one spoken about, there is the fact that one focused on negative aspects of someone else. Hashem wants us to look upon others benevolently, with an עין טובה. When one speaks Lashon Horah one is highlighting the negative in someone else, and that is in itself a sin. It is this concept which the spies should have learned from Miriam: not to focus on the bad, rather to look at everything with an עיין טובה. When one looks at every thing with an עין טובה he will not speak evil even regarding inanimate objects.
Perhaps with this yesod we can explain a shvere Yerushalmi: as we all know, by the maaseh of Achan, Hashem told Yehoshua חטא ישראל, and when Yehoshua asked for specifics, the Ribono shel Olam demurred, asking rhetorically "am I then your talebearer?"
ReplyDeleteThe Yerushalmi in Sanhedrin, however, gets more specific as to Hashem's response:
אמר לו איני מפרסם כל ברייה ועוד לא נמצאתי מספר לשון הרע
This obviously raises two questions: firstly, what are the two reasons for His refusal, and, secondly, why is this loshon hora? Isn't this a classic example of letoeles?
According to your vort, perhaps we can explain thus: the Ribono shel Olam is יודע רזי עולם ותעלומות סתרי כל חי. He alone is קל אמונה ואין עול, for He sees all of the myriad reasons and calculations on which even the smallest choice is predicated, for good or ill. For Him to reveal this to a mere mortal is impossible, as we lack the capacity to encompass such a vast rationale. Thus, איני מפרסם כל ברייה, I will not reveal the entirety of any creature to you. If so, all you may ask is that I reveal just the specifics of this one sin.לא נמצאתי מספר לה"ר - if I reveal just this one detail to you, that is tantamount to focusing on a negative aspect, to the exclusion of the totality of the picture, and that, as you explained in this post, is the spirit of the prohibition against LhR.
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