A wealthy and learned man once came to the Chafetz Chaim to buy some sefarim. He asked for a copy of all his works, except for one. It seems that he did not want to buy Shemiras Halashon, which deals with the sins of forbidden speech.
He explained that “I have extensive dealings with many people in the course of my business…. I am convinced that I could not possibly adhere to all the laws involved in guarding my speech, and this sefer would be of no use to me.”
The Chafetz Chaim told him that he had gone to R’ Yisroel Salanter not long ago with this very problem. “I told him that I doubted whether my sefer would be of much value since businessmen would find it too difficult to abide by the laws of careful speech.”
“R’ Yisroel replied: ‘Even if you don’t succeed in evoking more than a sigh from a man who is aware of his sins, your toil in writing and publishing this work will have all been worthwhile.’ ”
—
On that note, I would like to try something different this year. Although there are some fans of the yiddish quotes that I generally send out on Sundays, I think people would benefit more from learning the laws of Shmrias Halshon (forbidden speech), which is of the utmost importance. I therefore will devote Sundays to this topic. With Hashem’s help, we will all be successful in learning the halachos and eliminating lashon hora.
A good start would be to listen to the shiur included in the link below which probably had a bigger effect on me than any other shiur I have ever heard. https://emunadaily.com/2014/05/26/power-of-speech-link-to-an-amazing-lecture/
Emuna Daily 