Good morning. Welcome back to Torah Tuesday, the Shemirat HaLashon section. Unfortunately, some of you had the wrong number from an email. I hope you've gotten it corrected. Good to see you back. Hi, Eli. We're on the other thing, so I know I saw you missing. I saw 19 missed calls, but my phone is off when I give classes.
At the very end of our study of the daily Chafetz Chaim, it talks about a very special situation that's very common. Somebody says, for example, “Somebody used my voice recorder, or somebody used my calculator, or something that's battery-operated, and they left it on and the battery died. Tell me who it was.” Now, of course, if you tell the perpetrator's identity, you violate the laws of rechilut (tale-bearing). So you don't, but you're able to say it wasn't me.
Of course, there are only two people in the room, and something has spilled on the carpet, and you say, “It wasn't me.” You are saying it was the other person, but in a normal situation, this would never happen. It would not be the case if one is at a private board meeting, for example, or a committee meeting, where the majority voted, let's say, not to renew a contract or not to hire somebody, and the man lost it. So when he sees you, knowing you're on the committee, he says, “Did you vote against me?” You've got to be very careful with your answer. You might want to say, “Well, they outvoted me.” Now, you're off the hook, you think, or you just spoke rechilut. You said, “It wasn't me; it was them. They voted against you. I didn't. They did.” So that's called rechilut.
The discussion in the meeting is a private matter. “I'm not at liberty to reveal that.” That would be much safer and a permitted answer. And even if somebody voted in favor of the person, he's not saying something about himself; he's saying something about them, and therefore he cannot reveal the details of the vote.
Now, the Chafetz Chaim brings an example. It's a very real example. It happens from time to time. Maybe it happened in your own business. Somebody comes and sees an item or some merchandise, and he wants it. It could even be something usual, but let's make it unusual: it's a picture. And this picture is not available. It's a painting. So now he comes and says, “Look, how much is it?” Back and forth, they come to terms. The buyer and the seller agree on how much he's going to sell it for, and he's very happy with the price now. The guy says, “Okay, I didn't bring enough cash, but I'll run over to the bank, and I'll be back in about an hour.” He comes back in an hour, maybe a few minutes less, and says, “Okay, here's the money.” The storekeeper says, “I'm sorry, it was sold to somebody else.” “What? Who?”
Now, there are several ways to answer that. One is, “George came in, and he pressured me to sell it to him. And even when I told him somebody else bought it, he said, ‘How much?’ I told him, ‘For $100.’ He put down $200. He grabbed her off the counter, and he left.” Rechilut. He just told somebody. Somebody did something to you that harmed you. But what's he supposed to do? He doesn't have it. He was going to save it. But this other guy came along. What am I supposed to do? You could say, “Well, I made a mistake, and I sold it.” “What? Who'd you sell it to?” “It's not important.” “Yes, it is.” “No, it's not important. He had nothing to do with it. It was all my fault. I'm sorry. Here's your money back. I'm sorry. Let me try and get you another one, whatever you want to do.” But to identify the party who got the item that I wanted, that's a big problem. It's a big problem because you're creating a situation where somebody hurt somebody else, or took something that someone else ordered, or did something that would create animosity if the identity is revealed.
So although the person is telling the truth, although he's only saying what happened, whether he forgot or he didn't forget, whether the other person pressured him or didn't pressure him, he's actually revealing that somebody else got what you wanted, and that's not permissible. He says, by the way, in many situations, the person who sold may be very honest. He may be telling the truth, and he may put the blame on his own shoulders: “I'm sorry. It was my fault. Someone came along. I sold it. But I never told him that you bought it. I never told him anybody else bought it.” Even if he does that—“My fault. I forgot, or I got greedy, or he made an offer I couldn't refuse”—you're blaming yourself. But once you reveal who the other person was, we said, rechilut: it's either somebody harmed you, and it will create animosity. It certainly created animosity.
So this type of situation is one where a person is even permitted to cover up the identity of the other party. We won't call it a lie. Now, if the other party was at fault, you're still not allowed to reveal. If the other party is blameless and it's your fault, you're still not allowed to reveal. The main thing to know is: whatever you do with your customers, whatever you do with the other party—the one who was hurt or damaged—you cannot in any way, shape, manner, or form create animosity between him and the ultimate beneficiary of your error. You can't do it. That's called rechilut.
With that example, the Chafetz Chaim completes the first section, Hilchot Lashon Hara, and the second section, Hilchot Rechilut. At the end of the Sefer, rather than end here, he starts to give some real examples, some real stories about how to apply the many different rules, whether it be To'elet (benefit), whether it be mistaken, whether it be damaging, whether it be false or true. And he brings what he calls Tziyurim, live examples of what could happen.
I hope to continue. With that, as we go through these laws, I could say that it's important to know that there is a daily calendar of Hilchot Lashon Hara, and it's learned by many people. There is even another section called Sefer Shemirat HaLashon, which is a good partner to this Sefer and was written by the same Chafetz Chaim; there, he brings more examples and stories and concepts than Hilchot. It's good to do this every day, and the Sefer is not that long. By reading two pages, or two and a half or one and a half pages a day, seven days a week, you complete the Sefer two to three times a year. And then, if the laws don't sink in and you're not specifically well-versed in how to apply them, still you'll be sensitive. Watch your words before they leave your mouth, knowing that they're like arrows and that once a word leaves, you can't get it back. We'll take a break and come back with a very interesting subject having to do with the parasha.