Yet a growing number of people say we are faced with a similar choice every day - and too often we choose wrongly. Instead of digging for the diamonds, we'd rather dish the dirt. What someone said, what someone did, what someone wore, what someone heard - talking about others is a staple of most interpersonal relationships. Whether you begin biblically with the serpent in the garden or choose to start at another point in time, gossip runs through all of the world's religions and people. In events going back thousands of years, gossiping and the spreading of rumors have been blamed for wars, murders and political mayhem.
People really have to be aware of the power of their words.
Everyone knows they shouldn't gossip. Feld represents only one of the most recent anti-gossip efforts. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament contain numerous admonitions against false rumors and tale bearing. And there is the nonprofit Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation in Monsey, N.Y., which is devoted to creating books, audio tapes, screen savers and e-mail services to improve the quality of people's speech. Foundation director Michael Rothschild compares it to installing new software between people's brains and mouths.