Author: Rabbi Milder

With the conclusion of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, we can glimpse Hashem’s awesome profundity in judgement, as seen in this week’s Torah portion of Ha’azinu.

“Hashem spoke to Moshe on that very day, saying: ‘Go up to this mountain of Avarim, Mount Nevo, which is in the land of Moav, which is before Yericho, and see the Land of Canaan that I give to the Children of Israel as an inheritance. And die on the mountain where you will ascend, and be gathered to your people, as Aharon your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people. Because you have acted faithlessly against me among the Children of Israel at the waters of Meriva-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you did not sanctify Me among the Children of Israel” (Devarim 32: 49-51).

The Sforno says that Hashem wanted Moshe to see the Land of Canaan in order to give it his blessing.  Hashem then told Moshe to accept his death as atonement for having acted faithlessly, and in this way he will be gathered in the bond of life (The World to Come) with those who are as fitting and proper as he is. (Click here for Hebrew text.)

Moshe lost the privilege of entering the Land of Israel due to the episode of the hitting of the rock. On some minuscule level, which is a whole dvar Torah in of itself which the Torah testifies as not sanctifying G-D’s name, Moshe, in effect, profaned Hashem’s Holy name – for which he was punished.

The gemara in Yoma 86a quotes a discussion: “Rebbe Masia ben Cheresh asked Rebbe Elazar ben Azariah in Rome, ‘Is it true that there are 4 types of atonements that Rebbe Yishmael expounds upon?’ He said, ‘It is 3 and repentance has to come with each one of them. If one overlooks doing a positive mitzvah and repents, he does not leave where he is without being forgiven… If one transgresses a negative mitzvah and repented, the repentance is in limbo until Yom Kippur brings atonement… If one transgresses a sin deserving of kares (spiritually cut off from the nation) or a sin which warrants the death penalty but repents, then repentance and Yom Kippur are in limbo and suffering cleans away the sin… But a person who has profaned Hashem’s Name (chilul Hashem) then it is not enough with repentance to be in limbo, neither Yom Kippur to be an atonement, or suffering to cleanse the sin rather they are all in limbo and death cleanses the sin.

Moshe, on his own unique level, in a very subtle way, profaned Hashem’s Name. By doing so he lost the share, he originally deserved in the World to Come. But that is only if he does not atone for his sins. It would seem from this Sforno that even though the Torah testifies about Moshe that “Never again has there arisen in Israel a prophet like Moshe, whom Hashem had known face to face” (Devarim 34:10), “And the man Moshe was exceedingly humble, more than any person on the face of the earth” (Bamidbar 12:3), and the fact that at this juncture Hashem wanted Moshe to stamp his blessing on the Land of Israel, still, in all, if Moshe would not have accepted his death as an atonement for his sin then he would not have joined the other righteous people in Heaven.

We see from here that acceptance of one’s atonement is part of the process of repentance, to cleanse oneself of sin, whatever they may be. One small choice can make the difference between an eternal life full of reward, mixed with punishment, or G-D forbid, worse.

There will come a day when the whole world will stand in judgement before the Master of The World.

Yesterday, calculating minds destroyed thousands of people, with attacks aimed with precise accuracy at the most populated areas. It was a well-planned attack by a distorted genius, more beast than human. The giant of the world, the United States, was rocked at its sources of power: business,i.e. The World Trade Center, and military, i.e. The Pentagon.

It is brought down that a person will come to wreak havoc in the universe not only destroying its enemies but whole people. Yishmael has been at the Jew’s throat from the beginning, for centuries. The nations have turned their heads from terrorism against Jews and Israel and never thought it could happen to them, and even condemned Israel for fighting back.

It says in the beginning of this week’s Torah portion: “All of you stand today before Hashem your G-D…” (9:29). Every single kind of person is singled out and “you,” the Congregation of Israel, are testifying for Hashem, and you, the Congregation of Israel, will be the only one standing.

“You stand today;” there is no Rome, Greece, or Persia.

The attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, conducted with such exactitude cannot be an accident; the Hand of G-D must have been involved.

There is a parable between gold and wax. Obviously gold is more valuable, but wax figures look more real than images cast in gold. Our sages taught that the difference between wax and gold is that under heat the seemingly real figures of wax melt away. So too by the wicked, there are those made of wax who look real, who speak of democracy, but when they are put to the test, the leaders of the United Nations are corrupt. They only look real.

Our sages have said that Jews were exposed for centuries to suffering that even mighty nations cannot handle. Every religion attacked them. Throughout history the pope was the leader of anti-Semitism; his talk of religion and peace was only wax; when it comes to good vs. evil, they melted.

At the end of the rebuke, in last week’s Torah portion, which all came true, Hashem says: “I leave you the Torah to live by.” It is a tree of life to those who grasp onto it.
Who is mighty? We can see the might of the United States crumbling down on camera.

The question is, will the United States remain wax, or change into a more durable kind of humanity?

This year does not even speak of the past but what will happen in the future.
We have to be “Standing today,” standing in recognition of The Holy One Blessed Be He.

We cannot speak to Hashem during the High Holy Days unless we have sincerity. A method of achieving this sincerity is to be around sincere people. People that stand next to one who learns with diligence or prays with proper intention catches it, it is contagious…

In this week’s Torah portion of Ki Seitzei we find the mitzvah of yibum (levirate

marriage). The mitzvah of yibum applies when a married man leaves this world without children and the obligation to marry his widow falls upon one of his brothers. The Torah says that the reason for this mitzvah is “that his name not be blotted out of Israel” (Devarim 25:6). The Sforno explains: “For regarding the child born of this union, Hashem, The Exalted One, will consider it as if born as a result of the original marriage of the deceased, and the deceased brother does not have to remarry her.”

If none of the brothers wish to do yibum there is a mitzvah called chalitza which divorces or severs the link between the widow and her brother-in-law(s). This process is done by the woman taking off the shoe of her brother-in-law, which the Chizkuni says acquires for her the inheritance of her deceased husband, which the brother would have received if he had done yibum. She then spits in front of his face on the ground and says: “This is the way to treat the man who does not want to build his brother’s house” (Devarim 25:9).

The Chizkuni says she spits in front of him in order to humiliate him for being disgusted by her, in essence saying: ‘after you don’t desire me I don’t care for you; rather, you are no better than this spittle.’ The Chizkuni says the statement she makes is also to humiliate him in order to settle her mind. (Click here for Hebrew text.)

There is an obvious question that arises from this Chizkuni. How can this woman embarrass her brother-in-law like this, especially in the public eye, in front of the court and witnesses? He is still a human being, and we know that embarrassing someone is like killing them. It is better for one to jump into a furnace then willingly embarrass someone. Furthermore, doing it in public warrants no share in The World to Come, so how can the Torah justify such a thing and deem it a mitzvah which must be done if the alternative mitzvah of yibum is not fulfilled?

We see from here the importance the Torah gives to mental health. The Chizkuni says the reason for doing this is in order to emotionally calm the widow down (לישבה דעתה) . It is therefore considered worth the cost, under certain circumstances regulated by Torah law, to embarrass someone else for the mental health of the other.

We find a similar concept by loshon hara (slander). Loshon hara is a very severe sin which is the cause of the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdash. Yet we find “there are time when Jewish Law permits listening to negative information which is no relevance to the listener or any of his acquaintances. Where the speaker feels the need to express his [or her ] anger or frustration for relief of emotional pain, one is doing an act of chesed (kindness) by hearing the person out and expressing understanding of his [or her] feelings” (See Chofetz Chaim A Lesson A Day, page 252). We see from here that one is permitted to vent if he or she feels he or she needs to and it is a mitzvah of chesed to listen to him or her and express understanding of their feelings.

We again see how sensitive the Torah is towards mental health even at the expense of what would normally be loshon hara.

דרכיה דרכי נועם וכל נתיבותיה שלום.
“His ways are pleasant ways and all His paths are peaceful” (Mishlei/Proverbs 3:18). With this verse The Rabbeinu Bachye starts his introduction to this week’s Torah portion of Shoftim.  He begins by recounting how King Shlomo, the author of Mishlei, is informing us through this piece that both the foundation and the main body of the Torah is peace, and even the main purpose of the creation of the world is peace. The Rabbeinu Bachye goes on for a very long time proving and enumerating, in great depth, how important peace truly is to Hashem. He concludes his introduction to the Torah portion by saying that just as peace keeps the world in existence, so too law and order (or justice) is what keeps the peace. Without law and order people would steal, connive, and kill each other, and the world would not last; through laws and order the world is able to exist. This is evident from a Mishna in Pirkei Avos 1:18: “Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says, ‘The world endures on three things: Justice, truth, and peace,’ as it is said: ‘Truth and the verdict of peace are you to adjudicate in your gates” (Zechariah 8:16). Since judges keep the peace upon which the entire world is dependent, the Torah therefore commands us to establish courts at each of our gates.

This is the intention of the first verse of the Torah Portion which says: “Judges and police, you shall give all your gates that Hashem your G-D gives to you for each of your tribes and they will judge for the nation righteous judgement” (Devarim 16:18). The Rabbeinu Bachye goes on to discuss the juxtaposition between the end of last week’s Torah portion, which deal with the yom tovim of Pesach, Shavuos, and Sukkos, with the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, which deals with judges. He says that even though the Jews all come together three times a year in Yerushalayim, where they could ask their questions of Torah and mitzvah observance to Kohanim,Leviim, and other Torah teachers, it was still commanded as a mitzvah to appoint judges in each and every city.

The Rabbeinu Bachye then defines what a judge is and what police are. Judges are the sages who know religion and laws, and who give over judgements. Policemen enforce the law. They walk around the city with batons and whips, making sure no wrongdoing goes unpunished, and balancing weights and measurements in people’s businesses which need fixing. All this is done under the guidance of the judges. (Click here for Hebrew text.)

We see from the Rabbeinu Bachye the importance of having a court system. Without it the world cannot exist, for peace only has a chance of existing through law and order, while law and order cannot be regulated or enforced without the courts. If there are disagreements, they can be taken to court. Judges can create fences, or issue edicts and decrees designed to reinforce the law, while the police are there to ensure that the law is being kept properly and honestly under the supervision of the courts. The stability of peace in the world, which is the foundation of Torah and the world itself, is a pretty noble reason to establish courts in every city and every district.  However, the Torah seems to give another reason why courts are needed everywhere, i.e.  in order for people to ask questions and get answers in Jewish Law and observance of mitzvos.

One can ask that if not for the first reason to establish courts in every city why would there be a need to establish courts everywhere? Granted, one could find all the Torah scholars together only three times a year, but torah scholars did not only live in Yerushalayim! They were spread out all over the country, living in their own home, running their own yeshivas or shuls, just learning by themselves, open and ready for anyone to go over and ask them a question. The Kohanim and Leviim were known to be the main teachers of Torah, and even though Hashem did not give them their own territory in Israel they were spread out in 48 Levitical Cities, throughout the Land of Israel. If that was the case, why would the courts need to be there for people to ask judges questions? Why couldn’t they go to their “Local Orthodox Rabbi,” posek, or Torah sage living nearby, without the necessity of an official court!?

Furthermore, once the Torah edict was in place for courts in order to keep the peace,why did the Torah go out of its way to emphasize another reason for the courts, which was to answer questions of the populace? Is not the first reason good enough to establish them everywhere!?

It would seem from here that the courts were sort of like a clinic specializing in answering questions on Jewish Law, and the Torah went out of its way to set them up and to advertise them, to ensure that people would ask questions in a timely fashion when  issues arise, and not push off the question until the gathering in Jerusalem, which only happened three times a year. If the courts would not have been set up and advertised for this very purpose, then people would not have had the same motivation to ask the questions in an appropriate and timely manner even if there were rabbis and learned sages available to ask.

We can learn a lesson from this, that outside motivation should be implemented in order to guarantee that things are being run correctly. Having special clinics and official specialists that are set up to deal with a specific problem, and advertising it, helps to resolve the issue. In this case, setting up courts in all the provinces and cities to not only regulate the law and deal with court cases which will keep the peace but to specifically be there to answer Torah questions and how to properly observe mitzvos, as well as advertising that that is what the courts are there for, will motivate people to ask the rabbi the questions they have and to seek out proper Daas Torah on a regular basis.

Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Dovid Shmuel Milder

Click Here to watch the video of this week’s “Let’s Shmuz” on the Torah Portion which takes place Monday mornings at ten EST.

The beginning of this week’s Torah portion of Re’eh starts off  “Behold I give before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing is if you listen to the mitzvos of Hashem your G-D that I have commanded you today. And the curse is if you do not listen to the mitzvos of Hashem your G-d and you stray from the path that I command of you today to go after other gods which you do not know” (Devarim 1:26-28). The classic explanation for these verses is that Moshe is telling the Jewish people that fulfilling the mitzvos are a blessing and that not fulfilling them is a curse.

However the Medrish Tanchuma (parasha Re’eh, paragraph 3) presents a fascinating twist to Moshe’s message to the Jewish people: “Another interpretation to ‘Behold I…’ This is what the verse in Eichah chapter 3 refers when it says ‘Good and bad will not come out of the mouth On High.’ Rebbe Avin said: ‘At the time the Jews stood at Har Sinai, Hashem gave them the Torah, and from that time anyone who sinned, Hashem will exact punishment from them. But in the past whoever sinned, the generation would pay for their sin. By the generation of the flood, our Rabbis have said, there were many kosher people like Noach and they were wiped out with the generation. By the generation of the Tower of Babel there were sinners and even the children were punished. When the Jews stood at Har Sinai and Hashem gave them the mitzvos, He said, in the past the generation would exact punishment for the sin of one of them. For now on the generation will not be punished for one. This is what the verse ‘Good and bad will not come out of the mouth On High means.’ Rebbe Avin further said that this verse does not make any sense if taken on face value!? Rather it must mean there are no decrees from On High coming out, neither bad for the righteous or good for the evil. So too Moshe arranged before them two paths, the good and the bad, the path of life and the path of death, blessing and curse, in order that the wicked cannot say that Hashem just created the world and did not explain to us which way is good and which way is bad in order that we can abandon it (the bad) and come to the good. This is why Moshe said to them that the blessing is if you listen… and the curse is if you do not listen… This is comparable to a parable of an old man sitting at a fork in the road one path is thorny in the beginning and smooth in the end, and one is smooth in the beginning and thorny in the end. He sat at the head of both of them and warned the passersby and would tell them, even though you see the beginning of this way is thorny, go on it because the end is smooth. Anyone who was wise would listen to him and they would walk through it and would only have to work their way through a little bit. But those who did not listen to him would go and stumble in the end. So too, Moshe explained to the Jews and said ‘Here is the path of life and the path of death and you should choose life so that you and your offspring shall live.’”

The Etz Yosef points out that originally Rebbe Avin was explaining himself and said you cannot understand the pasuk (verse) in Eichah according to its simple meaning because how is it possible to even think that good and bad does not come from the mouth of Hashem, for who does declare it and make it happen; rather it must be as Rebbe Avin was explaining, that G-D will no longer decree bad on the righteous and good on the wicked. Not like it was in the past that everything was judged according to the generation and if the generation was not guilty there was good even for the wicked, so too the opposite, if most of the generation was guilty there was bad for the righteous as well. However after the giving of the Torah, where life clung with good and death clung with bad, then good did not happen to those who did evil and vice-versa. (Click here for Hebrew text)

It would seem, according to this medrish, that before the giving of the Torah reward and punishment were not exacted on the individual but were handed out to the generation as a whole. So if the generation as a whole was found mostly guilty then the whole generation suffered punishment.In fact, it would seem that there were other righteous people in the times of Noach and for some reason Hashem only chose Noach and his family to be saved but the rest of the generation was wiped out. On the other hand Chazal teach us that in the generation of Avraham they also deserved to be wiped out but Avraham’s merits outweighed all the evil and the whole world merited to continue to exist. This would also appear to be true for Avraham’s descendants; their merits qualitatively outweighed the evil in the world and the wicked merited continuing to exist all through Yitzchak, Yaakov, his 12 sons, and the generations of Jews in Egypt, until they came to Har Sinai. Hashem then said that if the Jewish people would not accept the Torah then the world would cease to exist, apparently because rejecting the Torah would make the generation guilty and there would be no point in the world existing.

However, once the Torah was accepted by the Jews at Har Sinai,everything changed. Reward and punishment were no longer handed out to the generation but were exacted on the individual. What changed? Moshe categorized and arranged life and death, good and evil, blessing and curse, but why wasn’t it done beforehand? The Torah was there in existence the entire time, Hashem having created the world using the Torah as its blueprint, something which was done 2000 years before the creation of the world! All one had to do was look around and figure out how to observe the Torah, as Avraham did. There were schools of thought regarding what was right and what was wrong, like the Yeshiva of Shem vi’Ever. Avraham not only taught his son Torah, and his son taught his son, passing it down from generation to generation, but Avraham also had many disciples who followed him. So why only by the giving of the Torah on Har Sinai did everything change, withreward and punishment became an individualized system rather than a generational system?

It would seem from here that without an organization an individual cannot be held liable for his behavior. Only once there is an official entity, a specific group of people, an organized religion, and an organized nation, can the expectation on the individual become greater. Until that point, an individual cannot reasonably be held responsible for his or her actions, because the highest degree of efficiency is not in effect. The giving of the Torah was a turning point in the world, where the Torah was finally recognized in an organized way as the official handbook for life. That is how it became the specific authority of reward and punishment. Before that point there was always a moral sense of good and evil in the world because the Torah always existed, and the generations could be judged as a whole, receiving reward for good morals and punished for bad morals. Majority is always a means to make decisions, in this case to exact reward and punishment, when there is no individual expectation. Judging qualitatively, in addition to quantitatively, the actions of mankind is a fare way to Judge, for Hashem can read into the hearts of every living being.

Organizations set the standard for the individual, and without them individual expectations are just thrown into the pot with everyone else.

Last week, in the Torah portion of Va’eschanan, we read the first paragraph of the Shema. In this week’s Torah portion of Ekev, we read the second paragraph of the Shema (11:13-21).

The Sforno has a very concise commentary on the second paragraph of the Shema, with what seems to be a clear message about Hashem showing us a formula for success in life: “’If you shall listen… that I will give the rain of your land…’ in a manner that you will find sustenance without pain and will be able to serve Him. And if not, He will give you no rain at all and you will have no food to sustain yourself. ‘And you will perish quickly…’ through famine which is worse than the sword, therefore ‘take heed for yourself…’ ‘And you shall place these My words on your heart’ to contemplate them, ‘and on your soul’ to fulfill them willingly. ‘And teach them to your children…’ to train your children in mitzvos, ‘to speak of them when you dwell in your house…’ so as to speak of them constantly.”

The Sforno is, in a nutshell, telling us that if we make the observance of mitzvos and doing of Hashem’s will the focal point of every aspect of our lives, then we will be met with success.

A point of interest is that it would seem that one needs to be able to first contemplate the mitzvos and then, as a second step, decide to willingly fulfill them. One would think that if someone spent the proper time in deep contemplation or התבוננות over a matter, then automatically he would want to fulfill it or live life by its edicts; why is it a two-step process? The Sforno was not talking about reading over and taking in face value, with just a glance, each mitzvah. To contemplate, להתבונן בם means to delve into each matter. To focus on a subject and get a level of clarity so clear that one sees every angle of the matter at hand. That is the proper method to engage contemplation or reflection. However, if that is  so, why then would one have to actively decide to fulfill the mitzvah after all that contemplation? It is understandable if one first has to choose to fulfill the mitzvah and then learn how to do it; but once a person has an appreciation of the beauty of the mitzvah after much concentration and study, one would think that the drive to fulfill it would be automatic!?

Imagine: a scientist or philosopher, working towards a goal for many years, who finally has a breakthrough which changes the world forever. Of course he believes in all of his research; all the time and effort, the minutia that was delved into (unless of course he is lying to himself and the rest of the world). Therefore it should be automatic that he would live by what was studied and proven for so many years!

It must be that a person has the ability to disconnect from the obvious; it must have been built into the nature of a person, and to their benefit, to need to actively decide to fulfill and run their lives according to all they have learned.

שמע ישראל ה’ אלקינו ה’ אחד. “Hear o Israel the Lord is our G-D the Lord is one.” This statement of belief in Hashem is the most famous and important statement in all of Judaism, andit is found in this week’s Torah portion of Vaeschanan (6:4).

The Torah never writes anything extra and warns us to be very careful not to say Hashem’s name in vain. Yet the Daas Zekeinim asks why The Almighty mentioned His name three times in this one pasuk? (See also the Chizkuni on this pasuk. Click here for Hebrew text)

The Daas Zekeinim answers that if the Torah would only have written: “Here o Israel the Lord is one,” (שמע ישראל ה’ אחד) then every nation would have said that their god was the one. When the Torah writes “our G-D” ((אלקינו it is informing us that it is referring to the G-D of the Jews, whereas“The Lord our G-D is one” (שמע ישראל ה’ אלקינו אחד) could be interpreted to mean He is one of the many gods, and that  definitely would sound true if the Torah had only written “Our G-D is one” (שמע ישראל אלקינו אחד). However, now that the Torah repeats Hashem’s name three times, it means: ‘Hashem, who is our master, he is unique in mastership and there is no one else like Him.’

It would seem from this Daas Zekeinim that without the Torah spelling out as clearly as possible that Hashem is the only true G-D, Creator and Master of the Universe, then other nations might have a claim that this is untrue.

This sounds a bit puzzling; either we are talking about people who are making a concerted effort to believe in Hashem, which, in that case, there is no need to spell out this whole statement because by going through a logical assessment anyone can acknowledge that it only makes sense there that there is only one Creator of the world, Master of the universe, who has a divine plan for all His creation. And if the Torah is trying to convince others of Hashem, than by just stating it, it wouldn’t help, if they refuse to be willing to accept it. So why, again, would the Torah write extra words, especially if it’s Hashem’s Holy Name, if it doesn’t help any?

It must be that the Torah is talking to people who do understand that there is a concept of Hashem; but it is one thing to acknowledge that it makes sense, but it is a totally different thing to accept it. To accept that there is a G-D who created the world out of the Torah which he Himself created 2000 years before creating the world, and that he then handed over the blueprints of creation to the Jewish People as a handbook to life because we were the only people willing to accept it, and still in all he left the rest of the world with six general commandments to observe, to accept that is a whole different ball game.

That is why the Torah had to spell out without a doubt that Hashem our G-D Hashem is one. There is a big difference between knowing something and accepting it as fact.

Happy Tu B’Av and good Shabbos,
Rabbi Dovid Shmuel Milder

Tisha B’Av, a day of immense sorrow and crying, is upon us. How did it all start? Why have so many calamities happened to the Jewish People on this day?

The Gemara in Taanis 29a quotes a pasuk in Bamidbar 14:1, regarding the episode of the spies after they gave a slanderous report about the Land of Israel: “’The entire community raised their voices and shouted and the people wept on that night.’ Rabba said in the name of Rebbi Yochanan, ‘That night was the night of Tisha B’Av.’ Hashem said to them, ‘You cried a crying for naught and I will set for you a cry for generations.’”

My Rosh Yeshiva of blessed memory, Rav Alter Chanoch Henoch Leibowitz zt”l, explains, as found in the Chiddushei HaLev on Eichah, that it would appear from this gemara that the Jewish people were punished not only for a lack of faith in Hashem (and the crying was a symbol that they had lacked proper faith), but that they were also punished for crying “a cry for naught.” Meaning, the Jews really didn’t have a proper reason to cry, because Hashem would have saved them and protected them from any harm. That being the case, there was a claim against the Jewish people for crying “a cry for naught,” and it is forbidden for a person to be a “crybaby,” to bemoan and cry for no reason.

The Rosh Yeshiva zt”l asked a major question on this Gemara:why were the Jews punished for crying without reason? In their eyes they had a good reason to cry;they thought they would fall by the sword and their women and children would be taken captive! Even though this was  a mistake, still, in all, according to their logic, when they did not have complete trust in Hashem they had a good reason to cry. They weren’t “crybabies,” and they did not cry for naught?

The Rosh Yeshiva zt”l answered that it must be that the Jewish people were indeed punished for not acting appropriately and crying for no reason since in truth their lives were not in danger. They really had no reason to cry, forif the Jewish people had been on a level of proper trust in Hashem then certainly they would not have acted inappropriately by crying for naught and would not have deserved punishment. So too now, where the Jews were not on a proper level of trust in Hashem, they are punished for crying and they cannot absolve themselves of punishment by claiming they did not have enough trust in Hashem, for the sin of lack of faith cannot be an excuse for acting inappropriately.

Similarly the Chofetz Chaim writes in the introduction to his book (Sefer Chofetz Chaim, lav 6): “That one who speaks and accepts loshon hara or slander also violates the Torah prohibition of ‘Do not profane My Holy Name,’ for he does not have any desire or physical pleasure to speak slanderously which would cause his evil inclination to get the better of him, therefore this sin is considered like rebelling and removing the Yoke of Heaven and one is profaning Hashem’s Holy Name.”
My Rosh Yeshiva zt”l asked: how it is possible to think that one who speaks loshon hara does not get any benefit from his deed? We see day-in and day-out people enjoying speaking loshon harah!?

The Rosh Yeshiva zt”l answered that it must be that since this benefit stems from a negative character trait [i.e. gaavah or haughtiness], that one who spoke loshon hara cannot have a more lenient punishment just because he benefited from his actions. The reason being is that a negative character trait cannot exempt a person for acting inappropriately, therefore he is judged as if he transgressed without benefiting from it one iota, which is profaning Hashem’s Holy Name and rebelling against Him.

It would seem that an action stemming from a negative character trait like a lack of trust in Hashem or haughtiness is an act without reason. This is because there is no excuse for the sin. If a person was hungry and needed to sustain himself, but his desires got the better of him and he ate non-kosher food, that would be one thing. It is a sin, but not as bad as sinning without reason, because the action at least stemmed from a positive source and the evil inclination just got the better of him and convinced him to sin. But in the case of the Jewish People in the desert, the sin began with an acceptance of loshon hara, and since their crying for no reason did not stem from anything positive or needed, it was therefore judged as  without reason, just as speaking loshon hara is considered a sin without positive motivation since it does not stem from any positive desire or need which therefore deems it a chilul Hashem.

For this reason Hashem gave us a real reason to cry, which can only be rectified by annihilating baseless hatred and loshon hara from our being, in order to bring us closer to the Final Redemption, may it come speedily in our days.