We have our 11.45 session weekly on proper speech. We are learning how to control our mouth and use it for good, as it was intended, and not to violate the laws as codified in Shaarei Teshuvah and Sefer Chafetz Chaim. Today I want to talk about thinking positively.
A person is a judge. A person is involved in judging hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of information, with visual senses hitting the brain one after another. And we digest. It’s an intake. The eyes are an intake. The mouth is intake and output. The ears are an intake. But we see and hear so many things, and we digest them. And we have to decide on a regular basis: Is it fact? Is it correct? Is it incorrect? We judge the nature and the quality, but we also judge the validity.
So when you get to Klal Vav, the sixth chapter of the Sefer Chafetz Chaim, in paragraphs Zayin and Chet, 7 and 8, we confront the following. You hear something, and the listener absorbs what’s being said. The fact of the matter is that at that point, judgments must be made. Is it true? Is it factual or not? Now, a listener might hear something that could be taken either way. It could be fact or fiction; it could be positive or negative. But the listener may choose the negative approach. Can he? Is he allowed?
Now, when we talk about the laws of proper speech, we usually talk about the speaker. What is this that you’re telling me now? That I’m judging the listener? Yes. There’s a mitzvat aseh, a positive commandment: B'tzedek tishpot amitecha. Judge your fellow, amitecha, your friend, your neighbor, towards the side of righteousness. Tzedek (towards the side of righteousness). In other words, you’re supposed to interpret what you hear and what you see in a positive way. If a person should take a fact that’s absorbed by the eyes and ears and treat it as a negative, they’re violating the obligation to judge favorably. In addition, they’ve converted the statement into lashon hara (evil speech), and they’ve violated the law of not accepting lashon hara.
Let’s take an example. You have a man, George. He’s walking down the street. He meets Harry and sees Harry with an envelope, leaving the local beit din (rabbinical court), which is housed in the building on the street there. Harry’s very, very agitated. He just lost a din Torah. He just lost in a Jewish court. It happened to be a monetary issue with Sam. Did you ever hear something so ridiculous in a sermon? Did you ever hear something so ridiculous in all your life? Harry says, “It was obvious that I was correct and I deserved to win. And the judges should have seen that. Anybody can see that. They don’t know what they’re doing in there. And I don’t know if there are any other problems. Just saying they don’t know what they’re doing. Because I’m sure if I had been in a different beit din, I would have won.”
Now, the one who lost is waving the decision in an envelope and claiming that the beit din was incorrect. The statements were heard, and the scene was observed. And if he accepts what’s being said, he’s not... And he’s accepting all in one fell swoop. Because we are dealing with dayanim (judges), who are accomplished scholars of Torah, it should have been easier for the person listening and seeing this scene to reject what was being said. What should have been done? He should have turned to the man and said, “Listen, this beit din’s been around for a long time. And the rabbis on this beit din have good reputations for honesty and fairness and knowledge of what the Torah rules in every situation. If you think the other guy cheated you, well, Hashem has a lot of ways of taking the money away from him and making sure you get what you deserve. But you shouldn’t bad-mouth the beit din.”
And what should he do if the case is worse? He hears the man complaining. He makes a couple of statements. And now, me too: the listener, the one who heard what he’s saying, happens to agree with him. It sounds like he’s right, and maybe the judges did rule incorrectly. He should know he wasn’t there. He didn’t hear everything. He heard what the victim of the judgment wants him to hear. And he heard that it may be tainted and colored and discolored by the one who lost. So it shouldn’t be too difficult to apply B'tzedek tishpot amitecha and to, in fact, judge the dayanim favorably and reject the validity of the accusations.