There’s a classic parable told of a fellow who empties a bag of feathers into the wind. Just like it’s impossible to retrieve them all, so too one who speaks lashon hara will never be able to rescind all the rumors he’s sent into circulation. But why would anyone empty the feathers out to begin with? Surely they realize that they won’t be able to retrieve them! Likewise, why do people speak lashon hara? Who would consciously choose to spread awful stories about other people?

It’s time to update the classic lashon hara parable. The best analogy for contemporary times is the Ponzi scheme.

How do you start a Ponzi scheme? The answer is you don’t. Nobody wakes up and says, “Let me open a Ponzi scheme.” You have no intention to design a system to swindle your clients. It just happens. But once you’ve started, it’s near impossible to fix.

Here’s how it works: Times are pretty good, and so you open a fund promising 20% returns. But then the markets tighten, and you can’t deliver what you’ve promised. No sweat. All you need to do is temporarily borrow from the other pocket. You have investors whom you don’t have to deliver to until next year. In the meantime, you can use their money to pay the others the incredible returns you’ve boasted.

But now those other monies need to be returned with profit. So what do you do? You borrow from the next account. Or maybe even from the first guy who has now invested even more, knowing your spectacular results. Meanwhile, you’re also skimming a handsome salary for yourself off the whole fund.

Until one day it all comes crashing down. Because it was all lies. Fabrication built on fabrication.

That’s how lashon hara works. It actually starts off legit. What does that mean? Is there actually something called legitimate lashon hara? Yes, there is. The technical term is l’toeles, meaning lashon hara—bad talk—for a kosher purpose. Here’s an example: You call your friend to ask for some info about a shidduch, a date prospect. Purely for the right reasons. Fair, kosher, legit background checking.

But now let’s see how things might go awry: The next day you ask someone else for some kosher info, which they give you. A little while later you’re with the first person and you feel you owe it to them to share the info you heard from your second friend. It’s just so crazy! You can’t believe what you heard! “It’s not really lashon hara,” you tell yourself. After all, it’s true, and they should know. And so you give them back a pretty good return on their original investment.

Actually, it’s more than they ever bargained for. And so they feel compelled to tell you some good juicy gossip. “Wow,” you think, “I can’t believe what I just heard.” You start thinking about who needs to know that important piece of information.

Slowly but surely your lashon hara Ponzi grows beyond anything you ever thought possible. You’re sharing info. Some of it’s helpful. Some of it’s purely FYI. And some bits have traveled along the broken telephone line and the info’s a little skewed. But it’s still worth repeating, because of course, where there’s smoke there must be fire. Right?

Which, incidentally, is what the Torah calls motzi shem ra—ruining a person’s reputation with lies…

One year ago, Bernie Madoff died in prison, serving a 150-year term for being the biggest goniff in history. When he moved his monies around, he never gave any thought to the lives he was destroying. Retirees whose entire pensions were invested with him. Charities that trusted him to look after their sacred funds. When it all crashed down, hundreds of victims were financially devastated. From one day to the next, they went from living comfortably to wondering how they would afford to eat, let alone pay their monthly condo fees.

That’s the power of lashon hara. The punishment for the heinous sin is tzaraas, a unique leprosy-like disease that appeared on the human body, on clothing, and on houses. Why? Because a lashon hara Ponzi scheme devastates its victims personally, financially, and impacts their family members as well. Of course that was never the intention of the lashon hara speaker. They never intended to hurt anyone. Or ruin them financially. Or damage their family.

But nobody ever intends to create a Ponzi scheme. It just happens…

Rabbi Dr. Daniel Friedman is the author of “The Transformative Daf” book series.