Feathers in the Wind: A Response to Matzav’s Editorial “We Protest Bizayon HaTorah”

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matzav_networkBy Yaakov Segal

Web sites and blogs have totally redefined the famous mashal (example) regarding one who spews Lashon Hara or Motzei Shem Rah into the public sphere. Repentance can more easily be obtained when one slanders someone in private; one tries to repair the damage by correcting his misstatements to the private few who have heard them.

But when one slanders someone publicly, how can one attain teshuvah (repentance) by correcting his statements? It is like trying to gather up feathers from a torn pillow that were released into the wind!

Today, one doesn’t need a pillow or any wind; with the click of a computer mouse, you can cause untold damage in this world to the one you have slandered…and possibly irreparable damage to yourself, in the next World, as well. Remember, the laws of Shmiras Halashon are very complex and, I assume, one should be at least as wary of what comes out of his mouth, as one is on the food products that one puts into his mouth.

So let’s think for a moment: if I comment on an article or event on a blog, and it might construe an aveiroh (sin) that our Chazal say is equivalent to the three cardinal sins of Judaism, shouldn’t I think a little harder before I click that mouse, sending what may be a very big mistake into cyberspace, never to be retrieved? And lest you think Chazal were exaggerating regarding this aveiroh, I challenge anyone reading these lines to ask ANY Orthodox rabbi as to the veracity of Chazal’s warning.

The Chofetz Chaim warns us from the Zohar how these aveiros empower the Satan and bring wanton “death and destruction” to the world. When we read of terrible events that seem to take place almost every day in our community, instead of commenting “BDE” and shrugging one’s shoulders, doesn’t it make a lot more sense to do something about it?

Now, so far, I have addressed comments and responses to postings. What about the postings themselves?

Is one excused from the stringent laws of Shmiras Halashon (I include in this the disparagement of Gedolim, Torah institutions, Chessed mosdos, targeting people for personal destruction, etc.) when posting or printing an article? Is one allowed to reprint falsities, slander, etc. from outside secular sources and claim “It wasn’t me; I just reprinted it”?

I will let Poskim decide whether or not that information is considered “b’apai t’lasa”, in the public domain. I sincerely doubt it, especially if there is even a minute amount of untruth to it, you will be guilty of spreading Motzei Shem Rah, which is even worse than Lashon Hara. In fact, the Chofetz Chaim, in his discussion of “apei t’lasa” concludes that one should never rely on this heter, because the conditions needed to rely upon it are too complex and the subject of great debate among the commentators.

I clearly remember Rav Pam’s zt”l admonition regarding this: “If you can’t say something good about someone, don’t say it!”

And if one is “ovair” one, or many, of these issurim by publishing something they shouldn’t have, and you, the reader, reads the post, the blog, or the comment, and may believe even a small portion of the venom you have read, you, too, have transgressed the laws of Shmiras Halashon. The Chofetz Chaim says that one is a sinner merely for sitting down with a group that is known to exchange lashon hara, even if he intends not to believe what he hears. By the same token, isn’t one a sinner for reading the blogs even if (at least initially) he does not intend to believe what he reads?

It’s not for me to make judgments regarding any particular web site (or for that matter, any printed newspaper or magazine). But don’t we have a responsibility to make sure we print and read only that which hews to halacha…and click on only those sites that can add to our Olam Habah, not which detract from it?!

 (The author acknowledges the constructive comments to the original drafts of this piece by several authors of books on Shmiras Halashon.)

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5 COMMENTS

  1. I may be wrong but it seemed to me that Matzav spreading the info further by protesting? Did they do something correct Al Pi Halacha by posting the article? Can someone explain? Also- why is Matzav worried about what another web site posts?

  2. To #2 and others who don’t understand the importance of taking a stand against a website that claims to represent the frum oilim when all they do is bash us and let the bloggers bash us.
    If I would not be Jewish and frum, if I would not know the truth about our communities, and read the posts and blogs on that site, I would be an an ant-Semite by now. The sensationalizing by reporters, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, of every little thing we frum people do, blowing it up to making us all seem like criminals and molesters can have devasting, far reaching effects for the Jews. Unfortanately, a lot us of are very complacent, a lot of us cannot see the big picture, but all these posts that distort the real picture of who we are, can have terrible consequences, Hashem yishmor.
    In addition, what about the innocent people who’s names were smeared and lives ruined?
    I don’t understand how the owners/editors of that site are not scared of their ultimate Yom Hadin, which everyone eventually faces.
    And these bloggers, who have no compunction making sweeping statements of how vile our communtiy is, how we sweep things under the carpet and we are nothing more than nests of molesters and law breakers, will also have to give din vcheshbon. How will they be able to ask mechilah on the rechilus and lies they spread about our beautiful communities?

    Thank you Yaakov Segal for the truthful
    article.

    Thank you Matzav for having the forsight to dispel some of the massive chillul Hashem. May you have much hatzalcha.

    P.S. Matzav: Even though you can’t allow a lot of comments when you post articles like these, please keep on saying the truth, because all the lies and misinformation, which are spread about our community need to be exposed.
    People do read these articles. I have realized though, that it’s the most controversial topics that elicit the greatest reactions from people.

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