Message Detail Subject: INSIGHT 5767-28: THE ROOT OF LOSHON HARA Author: rbh@nishma.org Date: 6/2/2007 I also wanted to add a further insight into the connection of the story of Miriam to the meraglim, the spies, who were also charged with loshon hara against the land. As Rashi points out, they should have learned from Miriam. But what exactly should they have learned from Miriam? The fact is that Miriam had a dilemma that put her in a state of dissonance. Moshe was acting in a way that she perceived to be incorrect. There was a contradiction. Her mistake was that she answered to contradiction too quickly. Perhaps she should have asked Moshe her question, i.e. why (according to Rashi) he separated from Miriam. This was the same problem with the meraglim. God said that the nation would receive the land. The meraglim could not see how applying derech hatevah, the rules of nature. They were also in dissonance. The problem was that they did the same thing as Miriam, they answered the problem too quickly. They should have lived with the problem, perhaps also asked a question. This is again the root of loshon hara -- jumping to the easy conclusion.