On a more personal note, many cherished articles of clothing have been ruined by stains, rips, or not properly following washing or drying directions.
But ruins aren’t exclusive to inanimate objects.
There are men, women and children who are human ruins. Their neshamas are shattered. Their G-d-given potential was decimated by chronic, verbal and emotional, and even physical abuse. Many live their lives on the periphery, unable to marry, or are underemployed, as they lack the self-belief and confidence to take on the jobs they are skilled at. They were gaslit to believe they were “losers,” often by parents or teachers who demanded perfection – an unattainable goal.
A never-married friend confided that a frequent customer at her mom’s clothing shop (where she worked despite having an MBA) approached her and said that her parent was destroying her. She was constantly berating and disparaging and minimizing everything her daughter did.
Ceaseless, persistent negative speech, lashon hara, can cripple, devastate, and destroy a person’s future and is the verbal equivalent of a barrage of missiles that demolishes a building. Every son and daughter of Yaakov is a living Beit HaMikdash. Relentless criticism, derision and demonization leads to the tragic churban of a Tzelem Elokim.
