“Save my soul from a lying lip.” (120:2)

Rabbi Ishmael said: “One who engages in lashon hara (gossip) is guilty of a sin equal to the three prohibitions for which a Jew must accept death–idolatry, adultery, and murder” (Talmud Arakin 15b). The very essence of my being is attacked when I am the subject of gossip. If the lashon hara is false, the damage to reputation is obvious. But even if it is true my soul suffers terribly, for the gossiper has damaged my opportunity to benefit from fully repenting. Even if I ultimately do teshuvah (repent) for whatever it is that I did, the gossip will most likely have spread much faster and farther than my repentance.