Great essay about dangers of gossip and lies

There's mystery and controversy surrounding the probable suicide of a young Persian Jewish girl in CA at her friend's apartment. A lot of accusations are flying on message boards and so forth while the investigation continues, I guess. I'm not up on all the issues but one message board had a link to this great opinion essay by a Jewish scholar to attempt to stop the incredibly hateful and destructive "discourse." I highly recommend reading it because it touches on all of the things I have warned about regarding false accusations, lying, malicious gossip, slander, stalking and so forth, all from the ancient and unique Jewish perspective, which of course Christianity has its roots in also (as does Islam by sharing the same patriarchal fathers and prophets).

http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/a_persian_tragedy_20080611/

snip from a comment to this article by "The Web Guy":

Judaism is intensely aware of the power of speech and of the harm that can be done through speech. The rabbis note that the universe itself was created through speech. Of the 43 sins enumerated in the Al Chet confession recited on Yom Kippur, 11 are sins committed through speech. The Talmud tells that the tongue is an instrument so dangerous that it must be kept hidden from view, behind two protective walls (the mouth and teeth) to prevent its misuse. The harm done by speech is even worse than the harm done by stealing or by cheating someone financially, because amends can be made for monetary harms, but the harm done by speech can never be repaired. For this reason, some sources indicate that there is no forgiveness for lashon ha-ra (disparaging speech).