There is a particular statement in the opening chapter of Sefer Chofetz Chaim which seems puzzling. The Chofetz Chaim informs us: “Whatever I have said until now pertains to the occasional speaker of loshon hora, but if, God forbid, the person is a habitual speaker of loshon hora, that person is called a baal loshon hora and the punishment is far worse.”
What is puzzling is that the Chofetz Chaim seems to have changed the subject. We have been talking about the laws of loshon hora and suddenly the Chofetz Chaim is telling us about the punishment that a baal loshon hora receives!
If we delve deeper into the words of the Chofetz Chaim, we see that he is making a crucial point which we need to know from the outset.
There is a tendency among people to view loshon hora as less than a severe sin. If we were to inform someone that the food which he is eating might be non-kosher, he would spit it out immediately. For many people, loshon hora does not evoke the same revulsion. Yet the Chofetz Chaim equates speaking loshon hora with eating non-kosher food.
The Chofetz Chaim is communicating to us here that even an occasional bit of loshon hora is an incredibly destructive sin, both to the speaker and to the Jewish people as a whole. However, if a person goes further and incorporates loshon hora as a regular feature in his everyday speech, if he regularly seeks the bad in others, and complains about their shortcomings — then he is considered a “baal loshon hora” and has entered a new halachic realm.
The baal loshon hora is not just speaking loshon hora — he is denigrating a mitzvah in the Torah and flouting the word of Hashem. It is as if an Orthodox Jew who is careful in his mitzvah observance has just “one little bad habit” — he happens to eat breakfast every morning at McDonald’s.
It is obvious that the “Orthodox Jew” who eats at McDonald’s is not a truly observant Jew. The Chofetz Chaim informs us that someone who regularly speaks loshon hora, like any person who consistently ignores a Torah prohibition, is guilty of much more than committing an isolated sin. He is denying a part of Hashem’s Torah, and therefore casts doubt upon the validity of his entire mitzvah observance.
