Why Refraining from Gossip Is An Important Challenge

I love the logic of this. The rabbis teach that it important to refrain from gossip NOT because we find it distasteful. Gossip is FUN. It may damage the others reputation, but the juicier the dish, the more enjoyable. No. We refrain from gossip because refraining is really HARD but it is what God expects of us as an expression of our nobler self. 

I like that.  He also cites the story of the woman who becomes drum and has to give up eating lobster.  She confesses to her rabbi that she still craves lobster.  The rabbi compliments on this, saying, “If you didn’t want lobster, then not eating it would be easy.  The challenge comes from the fact that not eating it is HARD.”  The challenge isn’t in the things that we would never do, but in the things that we want to do and have done, but know that we shouldn’t.  Like the story of yeshivah - we know that we have truly reformed ourselves when, given the opportunity to miss the mark in a way that we have in the past, we chose to not repeat past bad behavior.  We CHOSE to act in a holier way.

Shabbat shalom!