אלה הדברים אשר דבר משה אל כל ישראל…(דברים א:א)

Rashi says they were words of punishment; Moshe told them words of rebuke. 

The Mekor Boruch of Seret zt’’l related that when he arrived in Chaifa after WWII, the city’s askanim honored him by asking him to give a drasha – speech.  He asked them what he should speak about. Is there something that needs to be corrected in this city?

The askanim became upset and asked, “Does the Rebbe want us to speak loshon hara about the city?”  The Rebbe replied: Chazal say that the Ketoros rectified the sin of loshon hara; therefore, a thing that is done quietly – the Ketoros rectifies for a thing that is spoken quietly – such as loshon hara.  However, we say every day “הקול יפה לבשמים” – the voice is good for the spices (ketoros); we see from here that the ketoros is something that isn’t done quietly? What then? Sometimes a voice is good to be heard, one needs to speak loshon hara, when? When a rav comes to a city, he sometimes needs to hear ‘loshon hara’ so that he should know in which area to arouse the crowd to do teshuva.