Torah study

[cellio]

"Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lord." -Lev 19:16, JPS translation

We spent a while talking about this verse this morning. We started out talking about gossip and ended up talking about whistle-blowing.

(Rashi interprets the first part as: don't be a peddler of tales, a "retailer" (I wonder who introduced the pun, him or a translator).)

We talked about how the Chofetz Chayim says that gossip harms three people: the subject, the speaker, and the listener. We talked about how a need to know can override (that's where the whistle-blower thread came from). For example, the talmud argues that if you know of evidence that would clear someone of an accuastion, you are required (under Jewish law) to testify to that effect. (The judicial system under Jewish law is very much weighted toward the defendant, in case you're wondering. It's not clear that a death sentence was ever carried out, for example.)

I asked if the talmud draws this conclusion based on the fact that "don't be a tale-bearer" and "don't stand by the blood of your neighbor" are linked in the same verse. (The rabbi said yes, that's right.)

Some people who were there didn't see the real harm in gossip; I guess it's part of current American culture. I'm with the Chofetz Chayim (though not nearly as careful as he was): spreading rumors can do a great deal of harm, and it's harm that's very hard to undo should you later determine that you were in error. It's tempting, but I try to resist. Often fail, but I try to do better.

One thing that makes gossip especially bad is that most people seem to be pre-disposed to believe what they're told; critical thinkers are in the minority, from what I've seen. One thing I've been trying to work on is to look for the positive (or at least neutral) explanation for what appears to be bad behavior. And y'know, sometimes that guess even turns out to be right. Nifty when that happens.

Comments

Re: what is gossip?

[buoren.livejournal.com]

I wonder about that too. There have definitely been times where I expected things to be spread around so I wouldn't have the less pleasent experience of telling someone something directly (about me, specifically)... and it turned out that everyone was being a good friend and not spreading it.

So, do the laws take into account the intent of the topic?

Re: what is gossip?

[cellio]

So, do the laws take into account the intent of the topic?

Sort of. If there's a non-derogatory interpretation that can be made, you can say something ambiguous. But if it can't be interpreted as a non-derogatory statement, you're not supposed to say it even if the subject of the comment has given permission. Yes, this can be inconvenient; I've also relied on the rumor mill to spread something around that I'd rather not deal with directly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.