Lo telech rachil be'amecha. Rachil is a peddler. Good morning again. It’s Torah Tuesday. We continue our day with proper speech. For those following the daily learning calendar of Sefer Chafetz Chaim, we learned yesterday—two days ago—about Rechilut in what we call Kelal Aleph of Rechilut, the first chapter regarding Rechilut. It brought up a very unusual case that I thought we should discuss.
Rechilut is from the word rochel: he packs up his bags with his stuff, he goes door to door, he goes to certain street corners, and he sells by going out and seeing as many people as he can in a day. So Torah tells us, Lo telech rachil be'amecha. Don’t be... Don’t be like a peddler transferring information from one to another. That’s called Rechilut. It’s a form of improper speech, or Lashon Hara, which involves passing information from one to another. “Do you know what this person said about you? Did you hear about it?” It’s transferring and delivering harmful or negative speech, even information that may already be known.
So it comes in many forms. In Rechilut, Se'if Yud (section ten) and Yud Aleph (section eleven) of chapter one, the Chafetz Chaim examines an interesting case. What’s interesting about it is that it’s not juicy new information. It’s something that the person hearing it already knows. And yet it’s still categorized as Rechilut. If you’re transferring something to me that I already know, what’s the problem?
For example, let’s say two families in one community were celebrating the Bar Mitzvah (son of the commandment) of their children, and it turned out to be on the same night. There was a dispute that went on for a while because they both wanted the same thing, the same room, and the same catering place for their Simcha (celebration). Three years later, the boys are 16, already juniors in high school, no longer seventh graders. It turns out that it’s almost gone and forgotten. Whatever the issues were, they had subsided.
Along comes a man who happens not to like one of the two, but two parties from the dispute. So he sees the other guy and says, “You know, maybe I can rile him up again and renew the problem, renew the fight that seems to have subsided.” He says, “You know, every night—it’s unbelievable—every night I have another Simcha to go to.” Now, in our community that’s common, but in the rest of the world it’s not so common. “But every night I have a Simcha, and I have another Simcha to go to. You know, it must be that very often two people want the same hall for the same night.”
So the one who was party to the dispute answers this troublemaker, who’s playing innocent, and tells him, “You know, it happened to me a few years ago,” and whatever he tells him after that is not our point today. The situation had subsided, and he reignited the flames. And he did. That’s Rechilut.
Now, when you study Sefer Chafetz Chaim, there are two sections. One is Lashon Hara, and one is Rechilut. Many of the laws of Rechilut are copies or repeats of the laws of Lashon Hara. So Chafetz Chaim at this point points out: You can spread the word by speaking to somebody. But especially in this texting world, we should know that in the world of texts and emails, electronic communication—in his day, he called it writing. If you wrote a note or a letter and related this information to somebody, it’s Assur, just as if you spoke it to them. Just like with Lashon Hara, it’s forbidden to communicate in writing. Rechilut is forbidden to communicate in writing.
Now, there’s another thing that you may not think categorizes as Rechilut. But it is passing negative information about something. A guy buys from a store. A guy buys a certain brand that a person makes, and he’s not too happy with it. It doesn’t fit right. He didn’t like the quality. He thought it was overpriced when he finally got it home. So what does he do? He could go back and get a refund. He could speak to the man: “You know, you’re selling this stuff. So many other companies make the same product. If you want to stay in business, you better make it better.” He could do a lot of things directly with the seller or directly with the manufacturer. But instead, he tells his friend, “Where are you going?” He says, “I’m going to buy sneakers.” “Oh, you’re going to buy what?” “I’m going to buy Chaim Yankel sneakers.” “Jewish guy, obviously. About the guy, oh, don’t buy Chaim Yankel. I’ll tell you the truth: He doesn’t match others at the same price. Or don’t go to that store. I heard they fit shoes properly. I have a pair of shoes I can’t even wear. They don’t fit me right.”
Now, you think you’re helping the guy. In fact, there are certain circumstances where such information can be categorized as l'to'elet, and it could be positive and it could be good. But here it’s not. That is categorized as Rechilut. You’re passing negative information about somebody and his merchandise and his company and his store to another person. And it may arouse negative feelings in the one listening toward the victim of the speech.
Then there’s another thing. Sometimes I have something, and I bought it for free, for financial reasons, out of necessity. And I know it’s not so great. I remember one time, a little over 25 years ago, it was not the best of years. When it came time to switch cars, I tried to live with one car. But with my wife’s schedule and my schedule, it didn’t work out. So what did I do? I went and got myself a cheap used car. The cheap used car didn’t look so great. It didn’t run so smoothly, and, as a matter of fact, it was not that quiet. So what can I do?
Now imagine I have this car and somebody tells me, “You know, I was with this guy yesterday,” and he names the guy we both know. “And he told me, ‘I can’t believe that Raymond drives a car like that. I can’t believe that Raymond drives a car like that. It’s such a car. It’s a disaster. What prompted him to say such a thing? He must have picked it up in a junkyard.’” Now, I know the car looks like it comes from a junkyard. I know it has a couple of dents that’ll probably never be fixed before it rusts away. I know that it’s not the newest or the fanciest or the best-looking car. Even the color is not nice. I know it. But somebody passing back to me that somebody spoke about it to him might give me negative feelings toward the person who made the negative comment. The man who lets me know about it is guilty of Rechilut.
So knowing about it beforehand and then hearing about it from somebody else doesn’t exempt that somebody else from the sin of Rechilut. Passing along information that might create animosity between people or may make a person feel bad about a situation he’s in is Rechilut. It can be done in writing, it can be done verbally, and it can even be done by talking about merchandise or situations, not the person themselves. Once you relate that so-and-so said, it’s Rechilut.