If you live in a secular environment and culture then it influences you - and the reality is that we ALL live in a secular culture. America is a Secular/Christian country and even Israel is a *Jewish State* that has a secular legal system governed by secular people who have little to no regard for Torah. So what makes it a *Jewish* State?? The establishment likes to call it a "Jewish And Democratic State" which is a fuzzy definition that obfuscates the problem of the many clashes between democratic values and להבדיל Jewish ones. For the secular establishment, from the PM down - democratic secular values will always trump Jewish ones.
So one of the values we grow up on which has received a tremendous amount of press recently is free speech. As one who has given countless *free speeches* this is a topic close to my heart.
The Torah does NOT believe in free speech!!! Just that the government doesn't control your speech.
YOU DO!!
Any speech that is לשון הרע [derogatory but true] or מוציא שם רע [derogatory and untrue] or רכילות [Chani hears Miri say that Brachi is nasty. Chani runs to Brachi and says, “You should hear what Miri is saying about you!"] or אונאת דברים [causing hurt] or ניבול פה [vulgar speech which is OUT OF CONTROL in the general culture] or other types of negative speech is absolutely forbidden. The biggest [by far] breach of Jewish speech laws is דברים בטלים - unnecessary-speak-for-the-sake-of-speaking-speech. The Gemara [יומא כ] says that if one speaks דברים בטלים he transgresses a מצות עשה!!! That is like most conversations and most podcasts. There are approximately 3.55 million podcasts and over 175 million episodes available globally in 2025 [until a few years ago - nobody even knew what a podast was!! How the world has changed!] So that means lots of דברים בטלים. Also, everybody walks around all day every day with a little machine that most people are addicted to with varying degrees that is a major conduit of דברים בטלים.
So sweet friends. Speech down here is *free* - it costs nothing and you have the ability say whatever you feel like. But in Shomayim it is a HUUUUUGE deal. Every word is weighed.
Please be mindful of this and use this gift with care.
