The Jewish Prohibition on Gossip Confronts 21st-Century Morality

In the past century, there has been a movement among Orthodox Jews to follow a strict interpretation of rabbinic prohibitions on idle gossip or lashon ha-ra (literally, “the evil tongue”). There are now support groups whose devout members try to wean themselves of the habit of speaking ill of others, and there are those who undertake “verbal fasts” to reduce their indulgence in this sin. But they are not alone: American practitioners of other religions, and of no religion, have undertaken similar commitments. Michal Leibowitz, having spoken with some of them, reflects: