Good morning. Welcome back to Torah Tuesday, 11:45 Tuesdays. We get involved with proper speech, the gift of Hashem to the human being to communicate with words and sounds, and how to use it, not abuse it. In the calendar set up for the study of Sefer Chafetz Chaim, today being the third of Tevet, we're going to talk about the laws of Rechilut. Rechilut is basically called transferring information or gossip. Lashon Hara is more negative speech or harmful speech. Both forms of speech could break up a business, could ruin a Shidduch (marriage match) possibility. That's Lashon Hara. Rechilut is more to relate: “Did you hear what this one said about you? Did you hear what he did?” And you're telling people information and spreading it all over town, we say. And that in and of itself is called Rechilut. Like the word rachil in Lashon HaKodesh, which is Hebrew, rachil means a peddler. So you go and transfer stuff around.
So now we learned, when we last talked about Lashon Hara, that there are three people involved. There's the speaker, the listener, and the subject. The speaker, the listener, and the one who's the subject of the speech. Just like in Lashon Hara, listening is the beginning of the end if you accept it. You may reject it, but listening is a dangerous way of relating to people, because if the person's coming to tell you something that is Rechilut or Lashon Hara as well, then you're supposed to avoid it like a fire. So the Torah prohibits us from accepting Lashon Hara as a fact. You heard it, but you don't believe it. It's forbidden to accept Rechilut as fact. So in both cases, the statement by the speaker is one issue, but the listener, who might as well be you, is also subject to restrictions, and you're not allowed to accept it as true. To accept Rechilut is to violate a negative mitzvah (commandment): “Do not accept a false report.”
Now, Chafetz Chaim makes it very clear that there's a difference between accepting Rechilut and listening to Rechilut. It is always 110% asur (forbidden) to accept Rechilut. Meaning: “I believe it, I think it's true, I know it's true, I accept it.” “Could be, maybe, maybe not.” So to accept it is a sin. However, we are permitted to listen to Rechilut if I don't believe it's a fact. How am I going to know that? Before you start, you're allowed to listen under the condition that you're protecting yourself from possible harm. Could be harm, could be financial loss, could be a bad match.
To better understand this, let's look at an example. You have two men; they work together. Let's call them Reuven and Shimon—Levine, Reuven, whoever it is. They work in a law office. One day, one of the people takes the other guy aside and tells him that another attorney at the firm has been quietly, behind his back, speaking to the bosses of the law firm—it's called the partners—to reassign him, the guy we're talking about, to take over for you, the listener, in a very important case. He's working on getting him in and you out.
Now, it would seem silly or even self-destructive for Levine, the listener, not to believe Reuven, the speaker. Because if he does not act on the information, he stands to lose a great deal of prestige and income as well. So, aside from the loss of the case and the case handling, he may also lose a future promotion or partnership; his employment might be subject to risk. They would think, maybe: “You know why they switched? He wasn't qualified. You know why they switched? He can't handle that.”
So the Chafetz Chaim says that this man being spoken about—the man who's the subject of another's attempt to replace him—is allowed to take measures to protect himself. But he's not allowed to believe that the report is true, that this other person is doing this other thing to undermine him, unless he takes steps to investigate and confirms the facts to be true. But where listening to a report would not result in a constructive purpose, you're not allowed to listen at all. Don't tell me, “I don't—I'm sorry, I'm busy now.” In our example, the first sentence may be enough to let the listener know whether or not this is going to be something he should know and is constructive, because the Torah allows defensive action.
Now, the Chafetz Chaim doesn't say outright, but he hints that outright, you're not allowed to accept, but somewhat you're allowed to accept for protection, self-protection. He can suspect it's true, but he's not allowed to believe it's true. Now, how do you avoid believing? To avoid believing a negative report about someone else, we have to focus on the person's merits and say, “Look, he's talking about a guy. I don't know, I get along with him. I never had any issue with him. I don't have any reason to suspect, and this will merit.” And remember what's called Ahavat Yisrael, a separate topic altogether, by the Chafetz Chaim. There's a Sefer called Ahavat Yisrael. So he has to fill his heart with love of the other Jews. If you abide by the mitzvah to love the other people, the fellow Jew, then if you understand Ahavat Yisrael, it inspires us to look for the benefit of the doubt, to tell ourselves, “Yeah, what he's telling me could be legitimate, but I doubt it. Not this guy. This guy would never do something like that.”
The partner actually asks Shimon to take the case, or the client suggested him and maybe has grounds for saying, “I'd like to take it.” But it's not viable if it belongs to somebody else. Because if somebody else has it, and you never had a bad experience and you haven't any reason to suspect, you have to be sure to move forward in a way of disbelief. It's irrelevant to my personal life, so I will try and avoid anything to do with this Rechilut. Just like Lashon Hara is asur to accept as true, and yet for a constructive purpose you may speak it and consider it, but you can't believe it in your heart. Believing in your heart is wrong. And that's the same in the laws of Rechilut.
By the way, when you study the sefer day to day and you try and keep up with the daily calendar, you'll find many of the laws of Lashon Hara apply to Rechilut, but there are those that don't, or apply in a different way. I hope this lesson will get you to the right place in how to use your mouth and when not to.