Evil Speech: Like a Worm

Yehudit via Julie sent me the following thought after reading our Worm editorial on Breslev Israel:

"In the car this morning, I made an effort to do five minutes of hitbodedut (personal prayer - LB). I'd felt kind-of, well, yucky, for hearing different stories yesterday from different people about subject matter that would fit into the lashon hara (unwholesome speech - LB) spectrum. I was asking Hashem what it was about yesterday - and the two incidents - that I should be learning. Then it hit me. This morning, I realized my computer had been infected - attacked, really - by a virus, a worm, something unkosher in the hard drive. My computer was rendered useless.

"I put two and two together. Like viruses or worms, lashon hara slithers its way into your ear and lodges itself into your brain...and your soul. It proceeds to tempt you to slither it on to another person. I so wanted to share what I'd heard with my husband, but there were distractions with the kids and the phone and - well - I didn't get the chance.

"I realized I'd be better off not to discuss either stories with anyone. And so I killed the virus, the worm of lashon hara. And my husband did the same with my computer today. Now if only I had these lightbulb moments more often!"

The above thought really sinks in - like a worm... Thanks so much to Yehudit and Julie for these special thoughts.