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26 Adar 5761 - March 21, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Worldwide Shmiras Haloshon Campaign
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

This spring, the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation (CCHF) will show the Jewish world that neither politics nor weapons alone will save Israel; we need unity. Through their Worldwide Shmiras Haloshon Initiative, CCHF will bring the words of some of today's leading Jewish luminaries and the laws of shmiras haloshon to synagogues and schools everywhere. And they'll offer every Jew the opportunity to strengthen our nation's best defense: achdus and tefillah.

The Initiative will try to reach thousands of Jews to bring them into a shmiras haloshon coalition and also to bring comprehensive programs to communities to teach shmiras haloshon to achieve the Jewish ideal of refined speech and interpersonal communication.

The Initiative is to begin with an inspirational event on April 30. All participating schools will witness, via live audio and/or video hookup, the motivational words of three of the generation's most respected leaders, HaRav Shmuel Kamenetsky, dean of the Philadelphia Yeshiva; HaRav Aaron Leib Steinman, dean of Yeshiva Gaon Yaakov from Bnei Brak, Israel; and HaRav Matisyahu Salomon, of Beth Medrash Govoha, in Lakewood, NJ.

The program continues the following Shabbos on May 5, 2001 when synagogue rabbis will address their congregants on the power of shmiras haloshon to unify the Jewish people. Each synagogue will distribute Shabbos-table learning and discussion materials. They will also establish committees to institute brief (five minute) daily classes for learning the laws of proper speech and to organize other learning opportunities.

The Initiative is based on the belief that Shmiras Haloshon reduces negativity and hatred and builds achdus. This achdus invokes Hashem's compassionate sense of reciprocity: middah keneged middah. When we judge each other favorably, Hashem does the same for us. The Initiative will try to bring about the unity that is so needed to help Israel during these trying times.

"Besides the power shmiras haloshon imparts to our prayers, it builds an incomparable merit that protects the Jewish People," said HaRav Kamenetsky. "Each Jew who joins the Shmiras Haloshon Initiative, who commits himself to the learning and observance of this precept, enlists himself in the one and only force that can help the Jewish People turn tragedy into triumph."

Any synagogue or school interested in participating in the Shmiras Haloshon Initiative can call Alan Proctor at the Chofetz Chaim Foundation at 800-867-2482.

The not-for-profit Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation is an educational foundation working to eliminate hatred and divisiveness among the Jewish people. The 11-year-old Monsey based foundation has sold over 100,000 copies of its daily learning programs in Israel and the United States and hosts an annual Tisha B'Av event for 40,000 people in 230 Jewish communities worldwide.

 

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