On Torah Tuesday, every Tuesday, B'ezrat Hashem (with God's help), we meet at 11.45 a.m. worldwide via Zoom and iTorah.com, compliments of iTorah and Shaare Zion Torah Center, to discuss proper speech.
Today happens to be in the cycle. As you know, we've talked so many times about how the Sefer Chafetz Chaim can be completed by following a daily calendar, and you can complete the Sefer three times a year. The first cycle began on Rosh Hashanah, and today is the last day of Rechilut (gossip). Between now and Rosh Chodesh (new month), there are several topics to be discussed, and on Rosh Chodesh Shevat we begin again with day number one. So today is the last of the Rechilut.
As we discussed before, Lashon Hara is a negative statement that's harmful to a person's reputation or a person's well-being, and Rechilut is more like what we call gossip. Rochel is a peddler, and he passes things along by going door to door, going to shul and talking to everybody, or going to a party. Today it's more like texting and WhatsApping and whatever else you do to network with people.
So the Chafetz Chaim, in the laws of Rechilut, Se'if (section) 14 and 15, opens with a situation where a friend confronts another and says, “Listen, someone left my calculator on and my batteries are dead. Tell me who it was.” Now, the person may really know who the culprit is, but he's forbidden to reveal the identity because that would be Rechilut, passing along negative information that might cause animosity toward somebody else. He could, in fact, in such a situation say, “It wasn't me.”
Now, if you have two children in a room and Mommy comes in and says, “Who spilled that juice on my clean rug?” neither one could say, “Not I,” because that implicates the other person. But here, in a situation where someone in the universe has left this machine on without authorization and you say, “It wasn't me,” that's okay. However, this would not be the case when one was present.
So, say someone was present at a board meeting or a private meeting of a business where the majority voted and ruled against rehiring somebody, renewing their contract, giving them a raise, or a promotion. The person who was the victim of this negative vote sees one of the people he knows was present at the meeting and demands to know, “Did you vote against me?” Now, I just said in the first situation, “Not I, wasn't me.” But here, it is different. It would be important to know that you can't respond in any way other than to say, “The meeting was private. I'm not at liberty to reveal anything that went on in this meeting.” Even if the person voted in favor of the candidate, you can't still call that a negative vote of the victim; the attendee disagrees with the majority opinion, which impacted the victim negatively, and that's why he's asking. Still, you're not allowed to say, “I voted for you. What could I do? I was overruled.”
Now, there's another situation which could result in Rechilut. Let's say somebody has a store, he sells, let's make it kosher Judaica, and he has a few rare portraits by a famous artist. Party A passes the store, sees one in the window, enters, negotiates a price for one of the paintings, and tells the store owner, “I left my credit card at home. Please put the painting aside and I'll return later today to pick it up.” The man says, “Okay,” takes it out of the window, and puts it on the side by the counter. The purchaser comes back that evening and is very dismayed to learn the painting has been sold to another.
So Reuven the seller, in an attempt to excuse himself, says, “What could I do? He came in, he desperately wanted it, he pressured me. In fact, he put the money on the counter and took the painting, and I didn't want to fight with him, so I didn't stop him. I'm sure you understand.”
Now, if this account of what took place is accurate, Reuven is guilty of Rechilut. There's nothing constructive to be gained from telling Shimon that Levi is to blame. The sale to Levi is valid. Reuven can't dispute that he paid. Maybe he even paid more, and he took it. But telling the details to the victim who lost out will only cause him to potentially be angry with the other person.
Now, Chafetz Chaim points out that, all too often in such situations, it could be never really happened that way. Really, maybe not. Maybe Levi came, he's a friend or a good customer or an influential person, and Reuven really preferred to sell it to him to gain favor in his eyes or maybe get paid back one day in a way other than the money for the painting. And if this is the situation, then the one who covered up for Reuven is guilty not of Rechilut, because it didn't happen. He's guilty of Motzi Shem Ra, slander, creating a situation where he says somebody did something that they didn't do, and he creates a negative impression based on falsehood. So it's called slander, not Lashon Hara, not Rechilut.
Chafetz Chaim points out one final word of caution. Sometimes Reuven the seller is honest, and he places, as we say, he places—let me look this blame squarely on his own shoulder. He says, “Listen, I'm sorry. It was my fault. Someone came along, offered me a better deal, offered me more money, and I sold it to him, and I never told him that somebody else bought it first.”
Even then, the seller cannot reveal the identity of the purchaser. Now the purchaser is blameless. He came into a store, he saw something, he says, “How much is that?” He said, “$80.” The other man had bargained down to $65. He says, “I'll sell it for $80.” And in spite of the fact that the purchaser is guiltless, he went into a store and bought something, not knowing anything about anything—about anybody else wanting it or purchasing it, putting down a deposit, or saying he'd be back. But still, if he does tell it, he may create ill will, and that's called Rechilut.
With that, we complete the laws of Rechilut, and there are a few more issues covered by the Chafetz Chaim because today is the date of Kaf Daled (the 24th day), and until Alef Shevat (the first of Shevat) he's going to cover some issues daily. And on Alef Shevat, which is Rosh Chodesh next Monday, a new cycle of Sefer Chafetz Chaim begins.