Words and Music by Ellen Allard, www.elllenallard.com

Lyrics:
Did you ever have occasion
to assign an accusation
to a person who is nowhere to be seen?
Or perhaps you’re in bad humor,
so you spread a nasty rumor
Saying words that are deliberately mean.
When you give someone a roastin’,
and you’re braggin’ and you’re boastin’
but you know somehow deep inside it’s wrong.
You can make a course correction by
reversing your direction
And remembering this simple little song…

Chorus:

Lashon hara! (Shh! Shh! Shh! Shh!) (2x)
It’s the words we speak that say just who we are.
So don’t repeat it, just delete it,
Our advice if you should need it…
Lashon hara! (Shh! Shh! Shh! Shh!) (2x)

It’s in all the Hebrew writin’,
in the fussin’ and the fightin’
In the words that teach us how to live as Jews.
From one story to another, father, mother, sister, brother,
There is power in the language that we choose.
Though it seems like human nature,
within all our nomenclature
Within all we think and write and say and do.
There’s commandment number nine,
it teaches us to toe the line
But in a pinch we think this little song will do. (chorus)

In conclusion, in summation,
the entire human nation
Could reverse our history by being nice.
Our peaceful co-existence,
could use all of our assistance
‘fore you say it, think it once, then think it twice.
So when you have heard a story
‘bout another’s guts and glory
Or you’re feeling like you need to tell a tale.
If you’re catty like a kitty, just recall our little ditty,
It’s a chorus guaranteed to never fail. (chorus)