Tehillim 34 – Prohibition against Nicknames

Zohar on Tehillim 34 – Prohibition against Nicknames

Tehillim 34:14 - "N'tzor leshoncha mera, usfatecha midaber mirma" - (Guard your tongue from evil, your lips from speaking deceit). One of the names of the Jewish people is Holiness, and therefore it is forbidden to address a person with words that demean him; it is forbidden to give people nicknames. Great is the punishment of one who does so. We have learned that it is written: נצור לשונך מרע – "Guard your tongue from evil, your lips from speaking deceit". What is the evil involved? It is that illnesses descend into the world because of lashon hara. Rabbi Yose said: "A person is judged for transgressions he did not commit, being punished because he disgraces his fellow by not calling him by his name." Rabbi Hiyya said, Rabbi Hezekiah said: "As punishment for a person who calls his fellow a sinner, he himself is cast into Gehinnom and struck on the cheeks. Only those people who brazenly oppose the Torah may be called sinners." A man was cursing his fellow. At that moment, Rabbi Yose was passing by. Rabbi Yose said to him: "You have acted like a sinner." Rabbi Yose had to appear in court before Rabbi Judah. In his defense, he said: "I did not call him a sinner. I said, 'like a sinner,' because he behaved like a sinner." Rabbi Judah went to consult Rabbi Elazar about what the court should decide. Rabbi Elazar replied: Rabbi Yose is not guilty. It is written: היה ה' כאויב – "the Almighty will be like an enemy". If it had been written "enemy" without "like," none of the Jews would have remained alive. It is also written: היתה כאלמנה – "she was like a widow." Like a widow, but not a widow. That is, like a woman whose husband has gone abroad and whom she is awaiting. Now, living alone without her husband, she is like a widow. Rabbi Hiyya said, continuing the same discussion: "From here we learn the prohibition against engaging in sculpture and painting. For it is written: ועל דמות הכיסא דמות כמראה אדם – "and upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness resembling the appearance of a man". It is written "a likeness resembling", but not "the likeness of a man," and these are not the same. Rabbi Isaac said that it is written: כתפוח בעצי היער וגו' – "like an apple tree among the trees of the forest." It says "like an apple tree," but not "an apple tree." The analogy is as follows: just as an apple is colored in three hues, so too the unity of the Almighty is a union of three lines: white, red, and green. These three colors represent Chesed, judgments, and mercy. Rabbi Judah said: "If I had come here only to hear these words, it would have been enough for me." (Zohar, Sulam, Shemot/Mishpatim, translated by Rabbi Tzvi Nisanzen)