אמר רב יהודה אמר רב מאי דכתיב (דברי הימים א טז, כב) אל תגעו במשיחי ובנביאי אל תרעו אל תגעו במשיחי אלו תינוקות של בית רבן ובנביאי אל תרעו אלו ת"ח אמר ריש לקיש משום רבי יהודה נשיאה אין העולם מתקיים אלא בשביל הבל תינוקות של בית רבן א"ל רב פפא לאביי דידי ודידך מאי א"ל אינו דומה הבל שיש בו חטא להבל שאין בו חטא ואמר ריש לקיש משום ר"י נשיאה אין מבטלין תינוקות של בית רבן אפי' לבנין בית המקדש ואמר ר"ל לר"י נשיאה כך מקובלני מאבותי ואמרי לה מאבותיך כל עיר שאין בה תינוקות של בית רבן מחריבין אותה רבינא אמר מחרימין אותה
25 R. Amram son of R. Simeon b. Abba said in R. Simeon b. Abba's name in R. Hanina's name: Jerusalem was destroyed only because they did not rebuke each other: for it is said, Her princes are become like harts that find no pasture:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lam. I, 6.
');"><sup>26</sup></span> Just as the hart, the head of one is at the side of the others's tail, so Israel of that generation hid their faces in the earth,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' A metaphor for deliberately shutting their eyes to evil.
');"><sup>27</sup></span>
Shemirat HaLashon
And Chazal have said (Shabbath 119b): "The breath of the mouth that has sinned is not like the breath of the mouth that has not sinned." ["the breath of the mouth that has sinned":] That is, he who has sinned only sometimes, by chance, as we have explained in Chapter VII. How much more so if the breath of his mouth is habituated to sin every day and every hour. And all this, even if his mouth sins in other forbidden things; how much more so, in the issur of lashon hara and rechiluth by which he certainly undermines the prayer that he prays after this; and it does not ascend unless he undertakes to repent of this, as we explained above in Chapter VII in the name of the holy Zohar. And we can say that this is the intent of the verse in Koheleth 7:13: "See the act of G-d. For who can straighten out what he has made crooked?" That is, set your eyes and your heart on the G-dly things, the holy sanctuaries and the celestial lights created by you on high by your Torah and your mitzvoth — that they be created in perfection, by all the preparations needed for this and also by "clean tools," as explained above. For who can straighten out what he has made crooked? This is, if you damage them, G-d forbid, they will remain forever defective and damaged, and this will cause you eternal worry and constant grief in remembering that it was your slothfulness that caused all this. For they [(the heavenly edifices)] are not like the buildings of this world, which, if one damages them, another builder can repair them. Not so, with the desired [eternal] end. As stated by the tanna in Avoth 1:13: "If I am not for myself, who is for me?" And this is the intent of the verse "For who can straighten out what he has made crooked?"
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