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

what is gossip?

[bhakti.livejournal.com]

Huh. It's interesting to see those two points tied together.

I'm always a bit curious what people really mean by "gossip" in contexts like this. I usually think of it as "spreading unfounded rumors about other people," but I think most people see it more broadly. If one counts whistle-blowing, or offering evidence that would clear someone of an accusation, as close enough that you have to make special excetions for them, then it sounds like you're thinking of a much more general category of tale-telling.

An anthropology professor once told me that some researchers estimate that about 90% of daily human speech, across cultures and classes, is gossip. They define gossip differently, using the word to include any exchange of social information or ideas about other people (people not present for the conversation). If that's anywhere close to true, then that kind of chatter is awfully basic to people's lives.

I'm not terribly familiar with Jewish law (especially the Talmud -- I must remedy that), but from a more general ethical perspective, I wonder where one draws the line between harmless and even necessary exchanges of information, and careless or even harmful tale-telling.

It's interesting stuff to chew on. Thanks for the post!