Page 136 - Chayei Adam LAYOUT sivan 5782

Chayei Adam - K’lal 143 - Laws of Aseres Yemei Teshuva & Erev Yom Kippur

A person shouldn’t say, ‘don’t I put on tefillin and wear tzitzis everyday? Don’t I
say berachos and daven? If so, certainly the scale is full of merits!’. Only someone
without a heart can say such a thing, because he must think how many bundles of
sins he commits everyday, wasting time, speaking lashon hara and other
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forbidden speech. The same applies to all other parts of the body. Many people
have made this mistake as they think that one only needs to do teshuva for
terrible sins like idol worship, illicit relationships, murder, desecrating Shabbos,
etc. which is absolutely not true. There are sins which a person tramples on which
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are more severe than the three cardinal sins. Chazal tell us that lashon hara is so
severe that it is more difficult that idolatry, illicit relationships and murder, which
they derive from a posuk. This sin is very common, as Chazal testify that everyone
is guilty of lashon hara. Lashon hara is so great that even one who says that you
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can always find fire in so-and-so’s house is guilty of avak lashon hara. The reason
why [lashon hara] is more sever than the three cardinal sins is because he utilizes
the tactics of the nachash (serpent) who spoke lashon hara about Hashem and
told Chava that Hashem ate from the tree before he created the world. Through
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this, he seduced her and lay with her, which was adultery. This ultimately brought
death to the world, which is murder. This also caused Adam and Chava to deny
Hashem and although they did proper teshuva, it was too late. See how powerful
lashon hara is and what it can lead to. There are also countless bundles of sins

םדו רשב

3. Chayei Adam’s note: I have written impact a person on a physical level as well. As
at length about this in my introduction to the Chayei Adam himself writes, it is indeed a
my sefer Zichru Toras Moshe and everyone worthwhile work to learn in the days leading
should read it during the aseres yemei up to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
teshuva.
The author of the Chayei Adam 4. The Medrash Shocher Tov (Tehilim
published a small work on hilchos Shabbos 12:2) notes that pesukim refers to each of the
called Zichru Toras Moshe. In its introduction, three cardinal sins as “gedolah” (large), but
which was intended to serve as a general when it comes to lashon hara, the posuk
introduction to the Chayei Adam and (Tehilim 12:4-5) calls it “gedolos” (plural) and
Chochmas Adam as well, he explains how sins “nagbir” (becomes greater).

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