Speech

What part of man is the most Divine? His arms, ears, nose, biceps, knees, toenails?

The Torah tells us in Parshas Beraishis that Hashem blew into man a living spirit and he became a living soul ["nefesh chaya"]. Unkelos famously translated nefesh chaya as "ruach mimalila" - a speaking spirit.

SPEECH IS THE MOST DIVINE ASPECT OF OURSELVES.

So we can understand that the sins of lashon hara and other forms of inappropriate speech are not only bad because of the harm they cause but more fundamentally because by misusing our power of speech we are corrupting the most G-dly part of ourselves. It is also important not to speak idly ["dvarim bteilim"] for that is also misusing something holy for nonsensical matters.

This is a big avoda and there is no better day to start than today..

Love and blessings!