Mitzvah 5: הוכיח תוכיח את
עמיתיך: There is a mitzvah on the listener of loshon hara to rebuke
the speaker. This should be done as soon as possible to minimize the amount of
sins being transgressed or even to stop it when you see it is about to happen.
There are times when you can allow him to finish like if there are other people
around and you want to share with them that he is saying lies and should not be
believed or one should listen to his whole speech if you feel there might be a
concern you have to watch out for but you can’t believe what he says and should
rebuke him after he stops speaking just in case he is talking for no good
reason he can always reply I am telling you this for your own benefit. There
are other times when it is better not to say anything if you know the speaker
will not listen because rebuking him might just cause to speak even more lashon
hara and that would be counterproductive.
Mitzvah 6: ובו תדבק:
A person has a mitzvah to hang around, do business with, have meals with and
even try to marry off your children to guys involved in Torah study or even
strive to marry off your sons to daughters of sages if possible in order to be
influenced and learn from there Torah ideals. If one hangs around groups of
people who just shmuz, may tell some good stories but get into tons of loshon
hara, then one loses out on fulfilling this mitzvah.