People engage in Loshon Hora (negative speech about others) because they are lacking a broader perspective on the state of the Jewish Nation since we left Egypt. If one had the proper perspective, he would not speak ill of another person, and surely not about an entire group.
Jewish history is replete with calamities. The nation was formed during two centuries of servitude in Egypt. After finally arriving in the Land of Israel we were exiled twice, by the Babylonians and then the Romans. The Second Temple period was a time of unremitting strife as various armies constantly invaded the country. Even the two-thousand years of the Messianic epoch have mostly passed with us in Exile suffering from inquisitions, holocausts and other destructions. This continues to this day when, in addition to the physical enemies, there are spiritual threats to the existence of Judaism. If you really think about this, you won't have anything negative to say about any Jew, even one who does share the same outlook, as we are all brothers in these sufferings.
Imagine a man who is very wealthy who is brazenly attacked in public and has all of his belongings stolen from him. He is left with nothing. Suddenly, he remembers that many years before a homeless man borrowed a penny from him and never paid him back. He goes and stars arguing with the homeless man demanding payment of his penny. While he may be within his rights to make that demand, why is he focusing on the penny when he is suffering from a much greater calamity?
In the face of all that we have suffered, how can a person find room to speak ill of another Jew because of one small thing or another? Because of a small distinction of how he serves Hashem? Our world has been destroyed, we are all in exile, we don't live in our land in the way we did in days bygone. We are in pain over current events. In the face of such collective pain, how can a person engage in Loshon Hora about another Jew and his different form of serving Hashem.
The question is even greater on those who have spent time studying the deeper portions of Torah. Kabbalsitic thought teaches us that God is beyond understanding, and that those within the physical world cannot comprehend Him. Our minds are too limited to grasp. But then when it comes to certain topics, rather than realizing that they don't understand God's machinations, some begin to speak ill of others, as if they have never studied all these things and don't see the hypocrisy in their behavior.
People build their own approaches because of the questions they have on the way they see others serving God. They find something lacking in every approach and try to find some truth to grasp. They limit their view to the extent that they see other Jews, tens and thousands of them who are scrupulously following the dictates of the Shulchan Aruch, and they view them as if they are worthless. Only his opinion stands, everything else is nothing.
There is no greater foolishness. Actually, the panoply of different viewpoints demonstrate the greatness of Hashem, that He cannot be comprehended and there are many paths to Him. A person of sound mind would find great joy seeing this diversity which brings Hashem unlimited joy.
ראצ"ק א"ב שמות
Jewish history is replete with calamities. The nation was formed during two centuries of servitude in Egypt. After finally arriving in the Land of Israel we were exiled twice, by the Babylonians and then the Romans. The Second Temple period was a time of unremitting strife as various armies constantly invaded the country. Even the two-thousand years of the Messianic epoch have mostly passed with us in Exile suffering from inquisitions, holocausts and other destructions. This continues to this day when, in addition to the physical enemies, there are spiritual threats to the existence of Judaism. If you really think about this, you won't have anything negative to say about any Jew, even one who does share the same outlook, as we are all brothers in these sufferings.
Imagine a man who is very wealthy who is brazenly attacked in public and has all of his belongings stolen from him. He is left with nothing. Suddenly, he remembers that many years before a homeless man borrowed a penny from him and never paid him back. He goes and stars arguing with the homeless man demanding payment of his penny. While he may be within his rights to make that demand, why is he focusing on the penny when he is suffering from a much greater calamity?
In the face of all that we have suffered, how can a person find room to speak ill of another Jew because of one small thing or another? Because of a small distinction of how he serves Hashem? Our world has been destroyed, we are all in exile, we don't live in our land in the way we did in days bygone. We are in pain over current events. In the face of such collective pain, how can a person engage in Loshon Hora about another Jew and his different form of serving Hashem.
The question is even greater on those who have spent time studying the deeper portions of Torah. Kabbalsitic thought teaches us that God is beyond understanding, and that those within the physical world cannot comprehend Him. Our minds are too limited to grasp. But then when it comes to certain topics, rather than realizing that they don't understand God's machinations, some begin to speak ill of others, as if they have never studied all these things and don't see the hypocrisy in their behavior.
People build their own approaches because of the questions they have on the way they see others serving God. They find something lacking in every approach and try to find some truth to grasp. They limit their view to the extent that they see other Jews, tens and thousands of them who are scrupulously following the dictates of the Shulchan Aruch, and they view them as if they are worthless. Only his opinion stands, everything else is nothing.
There is no greater foolishness. Actually, the panoply of different viewpoints demonstrate the greatness of Hashem, that He cannot be comprehended and there are many paths to Him. A person of sound mind would find great joy seeing this diversity which brings Hashem unlimited joy.
ראצ"ק א"ב שמות
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