Wednesday, October 9, 2013

A Must Read! Devori Stern’s (15 yrs old) Talk in Bais Yaakov –In memory –Shoshie a’h



Devori has been chosen to be the 10th grade representative at Bais
Yaakov for the high school “Mishmeret” program. This program of the
Chofet Chaim foundation has been chosen as a way of educating and
Inspiring the girls not to speak Loshon Hara (negative, hurtful and derogatory
Speech) which is a serious prohibition of our Torah. The following is Devori’s
Talk this past week to the entire high school to kick off this year’s program.
Did I mention that this year’s entire program is dedicated in the memory of
Our beloved Shoshana Rachel bas Elimelech –may her memory be for a blessing.

Good Afternoon
Loshon hara is a very lowly thing that mostly hurts ourselves. Every time  you
Speak Loshon Hara you are hurting yourself more than the person that you
Are talking about. Every time you speak Loshon Hara you are sprinkling a
Little bit of dirt on your Neshama (soul). Most times that we speak Loshon Hara
It is because of our own insecurities and not because of anything else.

Let me give you an example. You have a terrible voice, you literally sound like a
cow when you say Modeh Ahni ( aprayer). Now this girl Sarah is an amazing singer!
She can do solos, harmony  and pretty much do anything with her voice. So Sarah
Is chosen to have the big solo part in the play. She messes up on one word. You
consider yourself “a music critic” and you go around and say “OMG –did you see Sarah?
She totally messed up the solo? You don’t even realize that it came from your own
Insecurity.

Does this make you really feel good? Does this really help you? The answer is no! You
Are only hurting yourself, you are trying to make your own insecurities go away! Sarah
Might have made a mistake but the one that is getting hurt is you, the one who is getting
An avira (sin) is you!

So let me ask you a question: When next Yom Kippur comes and Hashem wants to forgive
You for all of your actions. How is he going to do that? When it comes to Loshon Hara and
speaking about others Hashem can’t forgive you only the person you spoke Loshon hara
about.  I don’t think she is going to like it when you tell her uummmm that you spoke Loshon
hara about her and you are sorry. She is not going to be so forgiving. Are you going to
remember all the times in the year when you spoke Loshon Hara? No! So how is Hashem
going to forgive you?

Not to mention that if you speak Loshon Hara, and you are a gossiper
Hashem will have a hard time forgiving you himself ………….. I mean you are going around
And speaking badly about his children. K…… so why speak it? Cuz it makes you feel good?
2 get her back?.............cuz it is tempting…….. it is not worth it! I mean we all make mistakes
But we can all try to be more careful in the way that we speak toward and about each other.
We can all take upon ourselves a time in the day not to speak Loshon Hara, to be extra,
super careful. Do it with your friends, make it fun………….. it’s not nerdy. I mean come on
am I nerdy?

I’ll even tell you the best part we are doing it in honor of Shoshie Stern a ‘h –my sister.
As we all know, Shoshie was and still is a fun, bright, bubbly, sweet girl…… who spoke
With mostly all positive words and speech. Shoshie always tried to be nice to every single
Person and not to speak bad of anyone. It would mean so much to me, my family and I am
sure a million times more times to Shoshie to participate in Mishmeret, in her name, in her
memory to elevate her Neshama.

So lastly, I just wanted to express gratitude to Bais Yaakov for giving us an environment
Where we all feel comfy to be who you are and not feel judged when we want to grow and
Prosper. Lastly………..

Be Positive and Keep Shoshieing!



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