For silver—the crucible, for gold—the furnace, And a man is tested by his praise.
Explains Rabbeinu Yonah: What is the measure of man? How do you know what the quality of a person is?
Listen carefully to whom he praises. If his heroes are entertainers or athletes that shows you what his value system is. If he praises Tzadikim, that shows you what he strives to be.
That is why it is so dangerous to venerate famous people who are by and large very very very far from what we want to be.
Adds the Rosh Yeshiva ztz"l: ה interchanges with ח. So we can read "איש לפי מחללו". A man is according to whom he denigrates. If has negative things to says about people who are immoral, evil, conniving, avaricious, rapacious, materialistic, hedonistic etc. etc. - that says a lot about him as well. That is why all leitzanus is forbidden except leitzanus of Avoda Zara. To belittle stupidity and evil [Avoda Zara is both] is PRAISEWORTHY!!
Chazal say that an Apikorus is someone who says מאי אהני לן רבנן - What do we need Torah scholars for? What good are they? This might mean that it is not b/c of what he says but what it reveals about his value system. If he denigrates Torah scholars it shows that he doesn't value Torah which is an expression of Hashem's will. That is enough to brand one an Apikorus and lose his portion in the world to come רח"ל.
In addition - praising great people has a causitive effect on a person in making him connect to that person's greatness. That is one reason we praise Hashem before we make requests. The way tfillah works is that when we daven, we become more elevated human beings which makes us worthy of having our prayers answered in the affirmative. We elevate ourselves by praising Hashem, showing Who we want to emulate. Then we make requests, showing that we know Who is in charge.
Conversely, praising evil people brings us closer to them. That is the meaning of the איסור of לא תחנם, as the Rambam [Avoda Zara 10-4] writes:
וכן אסור לספר בשבחן ואפילו לומר כמה נאה עובד כוכבים זה בצורתו קל וחומר שיספר בשבח מעשיו או שיחבב דבר מדבריהם שנאמר ולא תחנם לא יהיה להם חן בעיניך מפני שגורם להדבק עמו וללמוד ממעשיו הרעים
[This prohibition also] forbids speaking about [idolaters] in a praiseworthy manner. It is even forbidden to say, "Look how beautiful that idolater's body is." How much more so is it forbidden to praise their deeds or to hold their words dear, as [the phrase states]: "Do not be gracious with them." [This phrase can also be interpreted:] "Do not look at them graciously," for doing so will cause you to draw close to them and learn from their wicked behavior.That is what this and other similar articles are about.....
