A Heavy Load
A Jew who regularly attended a Torah shiur once related that he was often swept up in words of lashon hara about good Jews during the shiur. This took away all of his interest in the shiur. It was specifically the landlady, in whose home the shiur took place, a ba’alat teshuvah, who would constantly malign others with scorn and derision.
I replied that according to halachah, he was forbidden from participating in this shiur. I wondered how this woman expected to do teshuvah when she herself always judged others in a most unfavorable light, constantly speaking lashon hara and causing others to sin by listening to her words.
Moreover, I felt terribly pained at the thought of the people attending the shiur, who, instead of drawing abundance of blessing in the merit of their learning, were holding strong to the power of evil and pronouncing harsh decrees upon the world in this manner. Their losses outweighed their gains. They came ostensibly to study Torah and bring merit to the world, but instead they were weighing down the world with more misdeeds.
