What does the Torah say about gossip (lashon hara)?

The Torah's core prohibition on gossip comes from a single verse: “You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people; you shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:16). Jewish law reads this verse as containing at least two distinct prohibitions bound together, and later tradition built an entire body of law, hilchot lashon hara, around unpacking them. Rechilut is the narrower sin named directly in the verse: repeating true information about someone to a third party, even when it isn't insulting, simply because it stirs conflict or exposes what should have stayed private. Lashon hara proper, “evil speech,” is true information that harms someone's reputation, livelihood, or relationships when repeated; motzi shem ra, a step further, is spreading information that is false. All three are treated as serious offenses, not minor social lapses, and rabbinic tradition points to the fact that the Torah pairs the gossip prohibition with “do not stand idly by your neighbor's blood” in the same verse as evidence of how much damage careless speech can do. The Talmud states the point sharply: lashon hara is said to kill three people at once, the one who speaks it, the one who accepts it, and the one it's spoken about (Arachin 15b), and separately calls evil speech worse than a sword, since a sword only kills at close range while words can kill even at a distance. The practical instruction that follows is not just “don't lie,” but “don't repeat,” even when what you'd be repeating happens to be true.