Welcome back to Torah Tuesday, Rosh Chodesh Nisan, and our session on proper control of our mouth. Peh is a part of the body where things go in and things go out, and sach sicha means to speak.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said that it's important to know that a person should not be a fool. He calls it the 11th commandment, which means that the Torah obligates us to use our seichel, to use our intelligence and our experience to learn, conduct our lives, and direct our lives. Sometimes we stand up for somebody who's bright and intelligent in Torah and is accomplished in Torah. We call him a Talmid Chacham at any age. Mipnei seivah takum means, however, you get up in front of somebody who's elderly, more than 60. Basically, it doesn't matter if they're smart or not. Something about the experience of life merits our respect.
So when we know something, we might apply halakha (Jewish law) incorrectly if we don't know the halakha. For example, we're not supposed to speak negatively about a person. We're certainly not allowed to speak in a way that would damage or harm a person or his finances. How about if we know that someone is dishonest, that he's a swindler who cons people? Now he approaches you with a proposition to invest, to partner, to do something that, if you do follow through, will be harmful to you. I know that this person is dishonest. I must use that fact for self-protection.
So, in the laws of Lashon Hara (speak negatively about a person), in Klal Zayin, the Chafetz Chaim comes up with the case of a person who is confirmed, for whatever that means, as a Rasha—it's a wicked person. He openly and consistently transgresses the mitzvot (commandments) of the Torah. He doesn't care that it's lo ta'aseh (negative commandment); he does it. He doesn't care that he's supposed to do it; he doesn't do it. Rasha.
Now, I'm not going to spend time in this brief 15-minute session compiling the guidelines for determining who is a Rasha, and I want to exempt from that category those today who might not be Shomrei Torah mitzvot (Torah-observant), who are categorized by the Rambam as a tinok—a person born into a family with no religion or into a city or a neighborhood with no religion. Not like our community. We're exposed to all that's right all the time, and he grows up amongst goyim (non-Jews), living like goyim. He goes to that horrible place called public school, college, and he ends up not being Torah observant. We don't call him a Rasha. We call him a Jew who's like a baby who was captured by goyim and raised in captivity, and for that person we don't speak negatively.
But the Chafetz Chaim tells us about someone who knowingly behaves in a way that's negative toward Torah. He has been exposed to it, he has seen it, he knows people: “I'm just not at that level, I'm not religious, I eat out.” “What do you mean, you eat out?” “Do you know what's wrong with you?” “Yeah, but I eat out.” You made that compromise with your ta'avah (desire). There's no such thing; that's called Rasha.
Now, in this klal, which is Klal Hei and Vav of Perek Zayin, the Chafetz Chaim talks about a case where somebody tells a story about himself and another person, about something they did that cast a negative light on both of them. For example, somebody goes to a high school reunion with classmates from the past, and everybody's telling amusing stories: “Remember the time? Remember when? Remember when we did?” And he tells a story unbecoming to himself in his current position, his current state of maturity, his current age, and about what he did with somebody else. They partnered in a deed that's less than commendable. This person is not allowed to tell that story because, by incriminating themself, part and parcel, they're speaking negatively or casting a negative light on somebody else.
So the halakha prohibits us from doing such a thing, from speaking about such an item, in spite of the fact that I'm including myself. Therefore, the listener who knows you're not allowed to accept Lashon Hara must also be one who rejects the validity and the truth of the statements. I cannot believe the story as far as it concerns the other guy. Maybe you did it, maybe you're admitting it, maybe you're making vidui. I know it's Nisan, you're not allowed, but maybe you're just confessing. But confessing to something you did that was silly, or you did something that was irresponsible, or you did something that was ridiculous, and saying you did it along with somebody else is not permitted, because a Jew—that includes you and me—according to Torah has a chazkat kashrut; there's an assumption that people are good, and I'm not allowed to believe anything that puts a hole in that wall of honesty, that uprightness and tzidkut (uprightness). And we have to understand this is difficult.
Now, if I know firsthand—I was there, and I'm sitting at the reunion and I remember the story—and the person telling the story relates it factually, without exaggeration, and it is quite humorous by today's standards. If I was there and I saw it on my own and I saw it firsthand, I didn't know it to be true; I'm allowed to accept it. But everybody else in the room who wasn't party to the conversation or a witness to the incident is forbidden to accept it.
There's a story about the great sage Moshe Feinstein, zecher tzadik, and he was not only a chacham (sage), not only accomplished, but Gadol HaDor (great one of the generation) by all standards. And to him, halakha is halakha. Now, halakha says, if somebody is saying the Amidah, for example, or Kaddish, you're not allowed to walk in front of them. You can't pass to get where you're going in front of somebody who's in the Amidah.
Now, there are conditions that allow it and conditions that forbid it. I'm not talking about the details, but once Rav Moshe was on his way to a very important meeting, and then he stopped and he waited and he waited and he wouldn't go any further. The person accompanying him said, “Rabbi, what's the matter?” He said, “There's a wall in front of me.” The man looked, but there was no wall. Rav Moshe said, “There's a wall blocking my path. The halakha forbids walking in front of somebody who's in the Amidah. To get to that door, I have to walk in front of that man. That's a wall. No compromise, no excuses, no passing. Halakha is halakha.”
So the halakha says this is how you have to treat a situation when it comes to Lashon Hara. You're not allowed to accept it because it's not firsthand information, because it's somebody speaking negatively about somebody else, and even if it was decades ago, it's asur (forbidden).