"When you say that a rabbi does not have a good voice or that a cantor is not a scholar, you are gossiping. When you say that a rabbi is not a scholar or that a cantor does not have a good voice, you are committing murder." So taught Israel Salanter, a 19th-century rabbi and leader in the mussar movement. Mussar is the study of moral and ethical teachings based on medieval Jewish literature.

It's normal to be interested in the lives of our leaders. We need look no further than the pages of supermarket tabloids--and sometimes no further than the evening news--to see stories of the personal habits, tastes and foibles of politicians, religious leaders and CEO's. It's normal for this information to be fodder for discussion. One question is: Is it necessary? The Jewish question is: Is it moral?

Rabbi Salanter wanted his students to be morally scrupulous in all areas of life. Judaism asks that we take special care in the way that we use words. As a matter of fact, Judaism takes the ethics of speech so seriously that there are laws in the Torah and Talmud pertaining to at least 10 different categories of behavior in regard to language. Among these are laws pertaining to: slander, tale-bearing, vows, oaths, rebuke, truth, greetings and more than one type of gossip.

Years ago I had the pleasure of listening to a lecture by Joseph Telushkin, an Orthodox rabbi, television writer and author of many books on basic Judaism and Jewish thought. Telushkin's most popular book is Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know about the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History. Its contents include all of the things Telushkin deemed important for a Jew to know to be well informed. At the time of his speech, he was working on another book, Words that Hurt, Words that Heal: How to Choose Words Wisely and Well. In it, In it, Well Telushkin covers much of what Judaism has to say on the power of speech.

That day, Rabbi Telushkin challenged everyone in attendance to try not to gossip for 24 hours. Understanding how difficult this would be for most, he added a caveat: if you were married, you were allowed to speak to your spouse; if you were single, you could designate one friend. In the days and weeks that followed, everyone I saw who had been at the meeting admitted that the task had been impossible. I think I lasted six hours.

Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaKohen, known as the "Chofetz Chaim," who lived and worked in Poland in the 19th and early 20th centuries, is most well known for his work teaching Jewish people about the dangers of gossip. His nickname, also the name of his first book, comes from a verse in Psalms which says, "Who is the man that desires life (chofetz chaim)... keep your tongue from evil..." The Chofetz Chaim taught, "Our sages have said that a man's art--his occupation--in this world is silence. Just as every
art requires study and practice, so it is with controlling one's tongue."

This month, as part of our derech eretz curriculum we will be asking our religious school students to practice this art. I will once again try to rise to Rabbi Telushkin's challenge of many years ago. Perhaps I will do better this time.