The Chafetz Chaim asks. How could it be that everyone seems to be speaking Lashon Hara? He explains that in this world we have something called the Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination. And this desire that's in each and every person, man, woman and child, old or young, his job is to convince you to do the wrong thing. Your Yetzer Hatov or your conscience is there to convince you to do the right thing. So knowing the tricks and tools of the he uses helps a person avoid being convinced by the Yetzer Hara. His strategy for your average person is very easy. He tells the person, your'your'e ALLOWED to say this, It's TRUE. But actually, Lashon Hara is even if the information is true. Ironically, Lashon Hara IS WHEN the information IS true. When it's not true, it's actually called, Motzei Shem Ra which means giving someone a bad name. A name that they don't deserve, because what you're saying is not true. But whether it's true or not true, it's still Lashon Hara. If the Yetzer Hara confronts someone who already knows that the fact that it's true is still Lashon Hara, he uses a different approach or a different tactic. He tells the person, "This person is such a rasha, he's so wicked, I'm allowed to say Lashon Hara about him, because he's such wicked person, the Torah was never talking about him. Or instead, "He's such a wicked person, I need to WARN people to stay away from him". And therefore, it's allowed. Obviously, the laws of when and where it's allowed are a lot more complicated than that. But that's the trick of the Yetzer Hara. Alternatively, he tells the person, this information you're going to speak, you know that if it's true, it's not allowed to be said. But you know what, this is not Lashon Hara. Lashon Hara means I pointed out a character defect. " I just said that the guy is not a good teacher. I didn't say they're not a good person!", things like that are the tricks of the Yetzer Hara. When all else fails, the Satan uses the exact opposite approach. He says, you can't say anything! And the minute a person feels like they can't say anything, what happens? They just give up. If I open my mouth, it's Lashon Hara. So the lack of knowledge that people have about what is allowed and what's not allowed actually acts in the favor of the Yetzer Hara, because by convincing you that it's impossible, he convinces you to stop trying. Once that happened, people started speaking Lashon Hara, it became widespread. Everyone began to think you know what? It's allowed. The idea of not speaking Lashon  Hara is only for great Tzaddikim, righteous people,  it's like a chumra, a stringency. It's not a Mitzvah. But actually, it's a Mitzvah in the Torah that applies to every single person, man,  woman and child. Everyone needs to learn the same way you don't eat not kosher, the same way you don't break shabbat, the same way you don't do any of the things that you would never dream of doing. That is also the way you should feel about speaking Lashon Hara. Now, that means that so much of what the Yetzer Hara is able to do to convince us is based on misinformation. The fact that we don't know the laws. The fact that we think that if it's true, it's not Lashon Hara, or if the person's not a good guy, it's not Lashon Hara. Or that this information doesn't count the Lashon Hara or that it's impossible. The Satan succeeds by spreading fake news. And he was able to do so because the laws of Lashon Hara, before the Chafetz Chaim wrote his book, was spread out all across Shas (Talmud), a little bit here, a little bit there. There isn't a Masechet Lashon Hara in the Talmud. So the Chafetz Chaim  went about gathering all of those laws,  and all those teachings to present in an easy to understand format, kind of like the format you're listening to right now. And once people would learn the laws and understand that they all had a responsibility, we could start tackling this great sin.

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