Lashon Hara Just a Click Away 29
the like. Similarly it is also considered the“dust of lashon hara” when someone speaks favorably about a colleague in the presence of his enemies, for this will surely prompt them to speak disparagingly about him. In this regard, King Solomon said(Proverbs 27:14):“One who greets his colleague early in the morning, in a loud voice, curses him,” for his positive[act] will bring him negative[repercussions]. Similarly,[to be condemned is] a person who relates Lashon hara in frivolity and jest, as if he were not speaking with hatred. This was also mentioned by Solomon in his wisdom(Proverbs 26: 18, 19):“As a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death and says:‘I am only joking.’[Also to be condemned is] someone who speaks lashon hara about a colleague slyly, pretending to be innocently telling a story without knowing that it is harmful. When he is reproved, he excuses himself by saying:“I did not know that the story was harmful or that so and so was involved.”
5.[There is no difference] whether one speaks lashon hara about a person in his presence or behind his back.[The statements] of people who relate matters which, when passed from one person to another, will cause harm to a man’s person or to his property or will even [merely] annoy him or frighten him are considered as lashon hara. If such statements were made in the presence of three people,[one may assume that the matter] has already become public knowledge. Thus, if one of the three relates the matter a second time, it is not considered lashon hara, provided his intention was not to spread the matter further and publicize it.
6. All the above are people who speak lashon hara, in whose neighborhood one is forbidden to dwell. How much more so[is it forbidden] to sit[together] with them and hear their conversation. The judgment against our ancestors in the desert was only sealed because of lashon hara.
Notes