What does Judaism say about gossip?
Chabad I think there’s a difference between what Torah calls lashon hara (“evil tongue”) and gossip. Lashon hara is evil in its intentions—it is critical or condemning—whereas gossip is more neutral. Gossip would have to be defamatory in order to be lashon hara. In order to understand the problem with gossip, we need to understand nature of speech itself. Speech is a garment of the soul: It reveals what’s happening on the inside, but it also has an effect on what’s happening inside. It is both an expression of character and has an influence on one’s character. So what does gossip show about a person, and what does gossip do to a person? Gossip first shows that a person’s pleasure comes from things that have no content. Gossip or pointless conversation is an escape, an unwillingness to deal with real things. And even if you were of greater character and had more substance, the act itself of having such conversations drags you to a bad place. Anything not used for its proper function is
