"The Chofetz Chaim" (or Chafetz Chaim or Hafetz Hayim) (Hebrew: חָפֵץ חַיִּים) (trans. Desirer of Life) is a book on the Jewish laws of speech written by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan. The book is about the mitzvot relating to correct speech and the prohibitions of slander. The title of the work is taken from Psalms 34:12–15:
- "Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of God. Who is the man that desires life; who loves days, that he may see goodness [during them]? Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit; turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it." [1]
The subject of the book is Lashon Hara (evil speech, or loosely: gossip and slander and prohibitions of defamation.) Rabbi Kagan provides copious sources from the Torah, Talmud and Rishonim (early commentators) about the severity of Jewish law on tale-mongering and gossip. The book is divided into three parts:
- Mekor chayim ("Source of Life"), the legal text.
- Be'er mayim chayim ("Well of living water"), the footnotes and legal argument.
- It is commonly printed together with the text Shemirath ha-Lashon ("Guarding of the tongue"), an ethical treatise on the proper use of the faculty of speech.
