Good morning, gentlemen. We're on the ninth segment of Think Before You Speak, the Laws of Shemirat HaLashon, Halacha (law) 9. Today's halacha is titled “Seemingly Harmless.” It's funny: you go through life and meet all different types of people, and every now and then you bump into a person who really knows how to play dumb. They have a certain plan in mind, a certain objective, a motive, but they know how to play very innocent and dumb in a certain way to bring out a result that would seem so innocent and sometimes so dangerous.
It's funny how a person can come off speaking Lashon Hara (absolute degrading information) about someone else and then come off kind of defending themselves and saying, “Really? Oh, I didn't realize. I didn't know that that was asur (forbidden). I didn't realize that was Lashon Hara. Or I didn't realize you know the person I'm talking about. Or I didn't realize that saying that would make the person look bad.” All these little “I didn't realize” statements are, in a certain way, playing the dumb card to bring out an underhanded way of pretending not to realize that what's being spoken is real Lashon Hara.
At the end of the day, pretending and not realizing is not an excuse. It's absolute degrading information; it's Lashon Hara, and it's forbidden, period, regardless of whether the person claims they realized it or not. And even if no harm comes out of Lashon Hara—even if a person goes and speaks Lashon Hara and absolutely no harm comes out of it—they know their audience, they know the people who are listening, and they know that the people listening aren't believing what they're saying. Still, whether they believe what you're saying or not, if you're speaking badly about somebody else, it's derogatory, it's forbidden, and it's Lashon Hara, period. And the person is going to need kapara (atonement), regardless of whether they believe it or not.
And Rabotai (my rabbis), listen to this. Even if you're confident that no harm will come out of the Lashon Hara you're going to tell about somebody else—for example, the guy says, “It's okay, you can tell me. I'm not hiring the guy anyway. It doesn't matter. What you're going to tell me now does not have any reflection or effect on my decision, regardless. I already made up my mind. I'm not hiring him. I'm not dating him. You can tell me.” Or they might say the opposite: “I'm dating him anyway, regardless of what you tell me. I like the guy. I'm going to date him regardless. You can tell me whatever you want. It's not going to change my mind.” It doesn't matter which direction they're going. Lashon Hara is forbidden to be spoken regardless of whether the person is confident that no harm will come out of it. Still, you're not allowed to speak Lashon Hara, period, and it's forbidden.
I think that when you hear this halacha be'iyun a little deeper, you'll understand and appreciate a new definition of the word harmless. When it comes to Lashon Hara, there's no such thing as harmless. Maybe right now, for the moment, what you're saying might not harm the person. Maybe right now, for this moment, the negative information that you're giving over about this person is not relevant to the person who's listening at this moment. They might not believe you, or it might not go anywhere, or it might not harm the person. But you just planted a negative seed in the mind of another Jew about somebody else. And those negative seeds, later on, can give off negative fruit.
Thank you for listening.