In What Ways Do People Engage in Gossip That Is Hurtful and How Can It Be Stopped?

People all over the world regularly take aim at one another with words. Some do it openly and crudely, others more cleverly and slowly, through rumors, hints, and subtle humiliation, so as not to become a visible enemy. This comes from our nature: to lower the other, to remove them from our path, to feel safer and higher at their expense. Moreover, we ourselves feel no direct and immediate harm to ourselves by speaking negatively about others, because inside we are convinced that they do not let us live, that they are our enemy, that they stand in our way and therefore must be neutralized.

Why were we given such a nature? It is for one purpose only: so that we would eventually correct our egoism and come to recognize that “love your neighbor as yourself” is not a moral slogan, but the main law of nature. Without revealing how deeply destructive our egoism is, we would never feel the need to change.

At a certain point, this negative behavior must begin to hurt us internally. We need to reach a state of feeling disgusted with ourselves, ashamed of what lives inside us. Looking at wars, killings, direct and indirect violence, we must realize that these are not happening somewhere outside of us. They are all within us.

I am the source. I am the killer. This moment, when everything turns inward, is the most important moment in a person’s life.

This realization comes at the moment of revelation, when we become convinced that we are full of evil, when our true nature is uncovered so clearly that we can no longer tolerate it. Then, naturally and inevitably, we turn to the very upper force that created us. This usually does not happen calmly or gradually; it comes with a serious inner blow, a sharp push that forces us to face ourselves honestly.

Before that, there is always some impulse and preparation, but the revelation itself is decisive. When it happens, prayer becomes natural. It is not a recited prayer with read or memorized words, but an inner cry. We come to understand that everything depends only on the upper force. We judge ourselves, not others, and by correcting ourselves, we begins to correct the world around us.

Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 3, 2025. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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