Lesson 1
Q. What’s the source for a prohibition about complaining
about Israeli taxi drivers (as a whole), or about the Israeli government (as a
whole), etc.? Or what if I relate a negative experience I had with a
particular Israeli taxi driver, but neither I nor the person I am
speaking to know his name, and we wouldn’t even recognize him if we saw him
again? Or, what about speaking negatively about Israeli government policies?
These things are not related to the land per se.
A. Some people think it is forbidden to speak only about
an individual person, but not against a group. In fact its worse to speak about
a group even without mentioning their names.
For example "the people in that country are very selfish" "the girls in
that camp are snobby" "chassidim in that chassidus are so aggressive" "the
ladies in the bungalow colony are rowdy" "The teachers in that school are not
experienced" "the bus service is so unreliable" "the kids in that school come
from very troubled backgrounds". Its not okay for a teacher or student to talk
about a class in general saying things like "my class is very mischievous". All
of these statements are considered lashon hora because they are belittling an
entire group of Jews. When you generalize a statement onto an entire group of
people i will think those negative things about all taxi drivers - even if i may
not know the particular tax driver you had a bad incident with.
Lesson
2
Q. Are we allowed to tell someone that a certain store
doesn’t accept credit cards or something like that? because if you say that,
then the store will lose out money. Even if its not considered lashon hora that
person will still be making the owner lose money?
A.
You ARE ALLOWED to tell someone that a store doesn’t accept credit
cards because its not a negative thing. The storekeepers made the decision not
to accept that method of payment - its their choice and its not a negative
choice. So yes, you can state that as a fact to your friend. Telling them in a
negative way like "ugh that person is so stupid and behind the times why doesn’t
s/he get credit card machines" That would be considered lashon hora.
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Lashon
Hora = Saying a derogatory/negative statement about someone else that
is TRUE
Motzi Shaim Ra (Defamation of Character) = Saying a
derogatory statement that is FALSE
About Whom is it Forbidden to
Speak Lashon Hora - Any Individual Jew - Alive or not, - adult or
child, family member (spouse, in-laws, parent, child, siblings), groups/sects of
Jews, Entire Jewish Nation
Important Numbers
