Hilchos Lashon Hara, Opening – negative commands (17)

Sometimes, one can also transgress the negative command, “Do not curse a deaf person,” if one speaks lashon hara of someone out of anger and then curses him, for the verse means that one should not curse even a deaf person and how much more a person who is not deaf.
Altogether, we have counted seventeen negative commands that one can commonly incur by speaking lashon hara. All this is if one speaks in front of a Jew, but if one speaks in front of a non-Jew, one’s prohibition is even greater and he is called a moser.
Some of them cause death by hand of heaven, such as when one distresses a widow or orphan, and some of them are connected to the world to come, such one who pales his fellow’s face or is honored through the calumny of his fellow.