Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Rainbow, Loshon Hara?

For years in parsha class, during the week of parshas Noach, the teacher would tell my class that rainbows were a promise. They were a promise that G-d would never flood the world again. Each and every class would continue with the same discussion about how one isn't supposed to show a rainbow to anyone else. S/he must only say a bracha. The reason for this, is because the rainbow is a sign that the person, who is seeing it, is doing something wrong and he must do tshuva.
However, there is apparently a new story...
and that is, that if one shows someone else a rainbow, that is loshon hara on the world. Apparently, one wouldnt know the world is bad if NOT FOR THE RAINBOW!
I also cannot figure out how you can speak loshon hara on the world. From what I learned in HS, Loshon Hara is exclusive to Jews.
I dont know. WHATEVER. lol.

1 comment:

Pepshort said...

Hi...technically speaking, you're absolutely correct in suggesting that loshon hara (LH) applies only to Jews. The concern about speaking LH on 'the world' is twofold; a) the world contains quite a few Jews, and b) even though one isn't in strict violation of a Torah commandment when speaking about non-Jews, it's not a good idea to do so. One who speaks LH turns themself -- albeit imperceptibly each time -- into a lesser person and a LH speaker. We're in this world to become closer to God and improve our character traits. Speaking LH, even about non-Jews, moves us away from where we'd like to be.