רמי רב טובי בר רב קיסנא לרבא תנן כל העושה מצוה אחת מטיבין לו עשה אין לא עשה לא ורמינהי ישב ולא עבר עבירה נותנים לו שכר כעושה מצוה אמר ליה התם כגון שבא דבר עבירה לידו וניצול הימנה
Now, what happened with Aher? Some say, he saw something of this nature.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Stated above.');"><sup>37</sup></span> Others say, he saw the tongue of Huzpith the Interpreter dragged along by a swine.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'a different thing' - a euphemism for swine, the unmentionable. - Huzpith was one of the martyrs slain in the Hadrianic persecution, after the fall of Bethar; v. Dor. II, 119. The Interpreter was a functionary who interpreted the public readings of the Torah to the people.');"><sup>38</sup></span>
Shemirat HaLashon
For is it not written (Mishlei 2:4-5): "If you seek for it as silver, if you search for it as hidden treasure — then you will understand the fear of the L-rd." And it is well known that everyone would prefer having a steady income even with less profit than a chance income with greater profit. How much more so with this ["income" of guarding one's tongue], which is a steady income with great profit. For with this mitzvah one can earn both when he is sitting in his house or when he is in the house of prayer or the house of study, and also when he goes to the market and sees people speaking what they should not be speaking (and distancing himself from them.) As Chazal have said (Kiddushin 39b): "If one sat and did not transgress, he is rewarded as the doer of a mitzvah." In sum: With this mitzvah one can "earn" from the time he rises from his sleep [in the morning] until the time he goes to sleep in the evening, effortlessly, and with great profit. For, for every moment of muzzling his mouth he merits the "secreted light," as Chazal have stated.
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