Stop Gossiping

The Power of Thought and Speech

One of the prohibited forms of behavior is gossip.

לֹא תֵלֵךְ רָכִיל בְּעַמֶּיךָ וגו’: (ויקרא יט:טז)
[G‑d instructed Moses to tell the Jewish people,] “You must not go around as a gossipmonger.” Leviticus 19:16

According to the Talmud, gossip “kills” three people: the speaker, the listener, and the object of the gossip. That the speaker and listener deserve to be punished is understandable, but why should the person about whom they are gossiping suffer?

The answer is that speaking about another person’s shortcomings does more than just belittle him. Words have the power to bring latent energy into actuality. When we speak about a person’s negative traits, it activates them and reinforces them. As a result, his behavior takes a turn for the worse and he thus incurs punishment.

Conversely, when we speak about the good traits of another person, we reveal and reinforce those traits. We can thus be a positive or negative influence on people; the choice is ours.

It is not only prohibited to speak derogatorily about someone; it is also prohibited to think about them derogatorily. In some ways, thinking negatively about someone is more serious than speaking negatively about them.

Polygamy and the Bible

1st published on 8th July 2012 on Facebook.

Christians are fond of defining Biblical Marriage as one man, one woman, bonded for life, sexually exclusive, and celibate before marriage. The problem is, that’s not in the Bible. In order to find that model of marriage, we will have to look beyond the bible.

Taking the Bible as a whole, there are far more references to polygamy — and far more approval from Yahweh himself for the institution — than for monogamous marriage.

If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated: Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn: (Deuteronomy 21:15-16)

Earlier in the same chapter, rules were spelt out for taking captive slaves and adding them to your harem of wives.

And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron: and there were yet sons and daughters born to David. (2 Samuel 5:13)

David, the direct ancestor of Yeshua, had six wives and many concubines. Concubines, by virtue of NOT being wives, are pretty solid evidence that non-married sex wasn’t an especially bad thing in the Old Testament.
Speaking of non-married sex, King Solomon, the wisest man in the history of the universe, had 300 concubines. Think about how many times you had sex last year. Solomon probably had beaten you to it before he even got to the first of his 700 wives.

Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, didn’t do quite so well. He only had 18 wives and 60 concubines. (2 Chronicles 11:21) Esau had three wives. At first, he married two Caananite women, but his parents were mad at him — not for having two wives, but because they were foreigners. So he found himself a good Jewish girl and took her for his own.

Christians love this passage: `For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh‘ ? 6. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” (Matthew 19: 5-6). It proves Yeshua advocated one man, one woman, with no divorce, right?

Well… not exactly. For some reason, they forget the rest of the passage. 8. Yeshua replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.” Yeshua goes on to prohibit divorce for just any cause, but NOT multiple wives.

More importantly, there is not a single passage to be found in the New Testament where Yeshua condemns, outlaws, or otherwise prohibits polygamy. Really! There isn’t a single one. Read it for yourself and see. One would think that if it was important for his followers to abandon the marital traditions of hundreds of years, and more importantly, of his own forbears — those men who were individually chosen by Yahweh – he might have taken a moment to mention it.

To know more about biblical polygamy, join this Whatsapp group:

https://chat.whatsapp.com/FIuzWRhHUTw9HSfR9wMspG

THE PURPOSE OF REWARD

Text:
[Yahweh instructed Moses to tell the Jewish people, “When someone is your bondman,] you must not work him with backbreaking labor.” – Leviticus 25:43

Background: Yahweh taught Moses the laws regarding the employment of Jewish servants. If a Jewish thief is convicted of stealing something and cannot pay back the value of what he has stolen, the court can hire him out as a servant, using the proceeds of this “sale” to pay off his debts. Also, if a Jewish man has no other way of supporting himself, he can hire himself out as a servant. In either case, the “master” is required to treat the servant humanely, properly feeding and clothing him, and is not allowed to give him demoralizing jobs to do.

Lesson:
Working without purpose is demoralizing and can even drive a person insane, whereas working for a constructive purpose – even if the task requires great effort – is richly rewarding. The satisfaction that results from accomplishment can be greater even than the satisfaction from the actual wages.

The efforts we are required to expend in studying the Torah and fulfilling Yahweh’s commandments may be great, but we have been taught that our efforts here below have profound influence on the cosmic realm above. Keeping this knowledge in mind enables us to study the Torah and fulfill Yahweh’s commandments with enthusiasm, joy, and purpose.

Culled from Daily Wisdom on www.chabad.com

THE VALUE OF WORK

[Yahweh instructed Moses to tell the Jewish people,] “You must not take interest.” Leviticus 25:36

There is a subtle yet crucial difference between an investor profiting from his investment and a lender profiting from a loan. When we invest in a financial venture, the invested money still belongs to us; thus, our money is “working” for us. We have therefore earned the profit that the venture returns. In contrast, a loan transfers ownership of the principal to the borrower; the money now belongs to the borrower, even though he is obligated to repay it later. Thus, taking interest on a loan is profiting from someone else’s effort without having participated in that effort. The lender is collecting interest based only upon the fact that the money used to belong to him.

Taking interest on a loan is therefore opposed to the way Yahweh wants the world to operate. Yahweh intended that we refine ourselves by working for our achievements, both spiritual and material. In the words of the sages, “If someone says to you, ‘I have toiled without results,’ do not believe him. If he says, ‘I have not toiled, but have nonetheless seen results,’ do not believe him either. Only if he says, ‘I have toiled and seen results,’ believe him.”

The Gentle Way to Educate

וַיְדַבֵּר ה’ אֶל מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר: דַּבֵּר אֶל אַהֲרֹן וגו’: (ויקרא כא:טז–יז)

G‑d spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron.” Leviticus 21:16-17

The Torah mainly uses two Hebrew words for “speaking.” The first (dibur) is reserved for “hard speech,” the straightforward, accurate delivery of the message. The second (amirah) is “soft speech,” i.e., tailoring the message to its intended recipient in order to ensure that it is indeed received and clearly understood.

The first part of this section of the Torah, which contains the laws regarding the priests’ duty to educate their children in the responsibilities of the priesthood, is couched exclusively in “soft speech.” It is only when G‑d returns to the other laws concerning the priests that He once again uses “hard speech.”

This teaches us that we must educate primarily with “soft speech.” In order to be effective, educators must relate fully to their students and tailor their style of delivery accordingly.

G‑d’s imperative regarding how the priests educate their youth applies to us all. Whenever we see in someone a behavior or attitude that is in need of inspiration or correction, we are immediately cast by Divine providence in the role of educator. In all such cases, we must remember G‑d’s instruction to make exclusive use of “soft speech.”1

Footnotes

Likutei Sichot, vol. 27, pp. 158–159; Hitva’aduyot 5742, vol. 3, pp. 1421–1424.

Culled from http://www.chabad,org