[Avodah] Shemiras Halashon - A Quick Review and a Proposal

[Richard Wolpoe]

Shmiras Halashon deserves a longer review, but on Chol Hamo'ed I'll be
briefer :-)

The sefer Shmiras Halashon is a tremendous compendium of machshava on
why NOT to speak lashon hora, motziva sheim ra, and rechilus. Many may
criticise it as "over-the-top" but when taking in small daily chunks
as recommended by the limud yomi it makes a profound impact upon one's
Machshava

I would likve to divert attention from the MAIN and most obviosu thrust
of the work to two "fringe benefits" that imho make this Sefer a real
ptreasure and a pardigm.

Treasure: Aside from the mussar and preaching against gossip, etc. I found
the author's Call for Ahavas Yisroel even MORE compelling. It is really
difficult to be 100% vigilallant in our speech yomam volayla. However,
we CAN turn our hearts around and learn to love our fellow Jew and to give
him/her the benfit of the doubt "betzedek tishpot amisecha" As such this
work's exhortations to love each other strikes a resonatn chord with me

Paradigm: This sefer is a treasury of Aggadah, Midrash, and Zohar
on its topic. Bialik's Sefar Ha'Aggadah attempted to do the same
for a number of subjects. However, it is quite limitted in depth.
The Shimras Halashon is a re-arrangement nad a re-sequening of classic
Midrashic style texts the way the Mishneh Torah anbd Shulchan Aruch is
a reqsquencing or Talmudic and Halachic Texts.

I would therefore love to see more sefarrim based upon this model
addressing different topics. The number of topcis is nearly infinte
but here are some


   1. Iyyun Tefillah
   2. Chaggim
   3. Business ethtics [eg Moznei Tzedekf fari treatment of customers]
   4. Managment Ethics [lo sallin fair treatment of employees]
   5. Bikku Cholim
   6. Nichum Aveilim

Just to name a few. And the Halachos need not be repeated. The ikkar
goal would be to produce a systematic, and topcial compendium of Aggadah,
Midrash and Zohar in the same mold as the Shemiras Halashon, only the
topics would differ

The Sefer Mishnah Brurah has set a paradigm in designing modern Halachic
comentaries [e.g. Badei Hashulchan] The Shmiras Halashon could do the
same for machshava

GM

-- 
Kol Tuv - Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
see: http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nishma-Minhag/