“Do not go about spreading slander among your people.” — Leviticus 19:16

The Torah portion for this week is Kedoshim, which means “holy,” from Leviticus 19:1–20:27, and the Haftorah is from Ezekiel 20:2–20.

One time a woman who was known as the town gossip went on vacation. She visited the Chicago Daily News and while she was there, she accidently leaned against a wall that had a freshly printed front page hanging to dry. She left the building and went to meet her husband for lunch. As she walked she heard people snickering. When she saw her husband she asked him if anything was on the back of her dress that shouldn’t be there. He took a look and saw the large black reversed letters: SWEN YLIAD. He said to his wife, “No honey, nothing is there that doesn’t belong there!”

The story is funny, but not so much in real life. We all know people who could very well fit the title of “Daily News.” They are the ones always ready to tell you the latest “news” about this person and that person. But don’t be fooled – they will just as quickly talk about you, too.

In this week’s Torah portion we read, “Do not go about spreading slander among your people.” In other words, don’t be a gossiper! The Sages comment that the Hebrew word for gossiper is the same as the one for peddler because, like a merchant going around town selling cheap merchandise, the gossiper goes around selling cheap stories. And by so doing, they also sow the seeds of discord.

Whenever we hear something about somebody else, we have a choice. We can keep the information private, or we can spread the gossip. It is much more tempting to spread the gossip than keep it to ourselves. However, the Bible tells us that gossiping is flat-out wrong. I once heard it explained this way: It’s as if we walk around with a bucket of water and a bucket of gasoline. When we hear a rumor, it’s like a fire has been started in front of us. We can either fuel it with gasoline or we can put it out with water. When we spread gossip, we are fueling a fire that is destructive to us all.

It says in Proverbs 11:13 (TLB), “A gossip goes around spreading rumors, while a trustworthy man tries to quiet them.” Are we going to gossip or are we going to be trustworthy? Are we going to fuel the fires of hate or vanquish them? Words seem so harmless — we cannot see them or touch them — but their sting can be so painful and they can leave a person burned and scarred.

Friends, rather than fan the flames of gossip, let’s resolve to quench those words before they can cause more harm.