Dear Friends,
After listening to many shiurim over this past month about the upcoming chag of Purim a recurring theme has obviously come up - the Jewish people were almost destroyed. Looking towards the following chag of Pesach, again- the Jewish people were enslaved and almost destroyed. In both stories, we were miraculously saved by Hashem. A common theme in both of these stories of our nations history, was the theme of assimilation, and how we were so comfortable in galus that we almost didn't realize we were slipping away from Hashem. In the story of Purim, we were trapped inside the gashmius of the time, and in Mitzraim- even though we were slaves, we still always wanted to go back to Mitzraim- because we were so comfortable there.
Even though it has been thousands of years since these stories occurred, I feel as though we are trapped again in this tragic state. We are sitting in Galus, trapped inside all of the materialism and physicality of our luxurious lives. We want to bring mashiach, but it's just a distant image in our minds. We, as the Jewish women of K'lal Yisrael have a mission- it says in the Gemara that we are going to bring the final geula. But how are we going to do this?
I had recently stumbled upon this article in the New York Times archives and feel an obligation to share it with all of you: (Please read)
It is an article about two High Schools who decided to try and help make a difference and educate young Jewish women about the laws of Lashon Hara. We know that we are in this galus because of sinas chinam, baseless hatred, and so the way to bring mashiach is by increasing our ahavas chinam, loving one another. After reading this article it is clear to me how we can help make a difference and try to bring the geula faster. Lashon Hara is a trap that we all fall into. We are all dying at times to spread the latest gossip and be in on the famous "hock." I really feel so strongly that this is hindering mashiach. I feel as though we all can work together and help each other work on our sh'miras ha'lashon- hold back that mean thought, hold back that negative comment, or stop Lashon Hara when we hear it. We often say things or repeat things to others and don't even realize it's Lashon Hara- that's how bad it's become. I once heard a powerful statement from a friend: "If you have great gossip to share, or a juicy story to tell to your friends- they won't be missing out on anything if you don't tell it. They won't even know you were thinking about it. No one will ever know the amount of times you almost shared a good juicy piece of gossip. Only Hashem will know when you held it in. And he will reward you every single time."
So therefore I have decided it's our turn to begin a Lashon Hara Campaign. I have created a google spreadsheet with selected hours of the day to sign up. I know usually when we used to sign up for these things we would end up signing up for times when we'd either be sleeping or in class so we wouldn't have to think about not speaking Lashon Hara. I encourage you to please take the challenge and sign up for a time when you KNOW you'll be with friends, on you cell phone, or on gchat. Please pick a time, add your name in that column, and then put a reminder in your phone for that hour that you signed up to not speak or listen to Lashon Hara. I tend to have a bad memory and life gets so hectic- so I too will put a constant reminder in my phone for my time slot so I won't forget.
Sign up here:
I hope that this small effort to limit Lashon Hara with help somehow bring Mashiach faster. The women of k'lal yisroel are a really tight sisterhood, and so I hope that we can work together on this project together and make a difference. Hatzlacha rabba!!
All the best,
Leah
PS- please feel free to fwd this email to as many people as you can :)
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