Judaism

In the Torah there are 613 commandments for the Jewish people to follow; 248 positive commandments and 365 negative. They aren’t always easy to follow — even commandments to keep holidays can be problematic. All of the religious Jewish students here at the UW have already missed two days of class for Rosh Hashanah, a day for Yom Kippur, another two days for Succot and they’ll miss another two next week for Simchat Torah. All within the first month of school.

No, no one ever said it was easy following the Jewish laws.

But breaking which law constitutes the gravest sin? I would argue that the worst commandment to break is Lashon HaRah — literally, “the evil tongue,” meaning gossiping.

Sure, the Talmud tells us there are three cardinal transgressions for which a person loses his portion in the world to come: idolatry, adultery and murder. But Lashon HaRah is tantamount to all of those.

Judaism is very aware of the harm that can be done through speech. The Talmud tells us the tongue is so dangerous it must be kept behind two protective walls, the mouth and teeth, to prevent misuse.

Lashon HaRah involves discrediting a person or saying negative things about a person, even if those negative things are true. True statements are more damaging than false ones, as you can’t defend yourself against them.

It’s forbidden to even imply or suggest negative things about a person. It’s forbidden to say negative things about a person, even in jest. It’s even questionable to say positive things about a person in the presence of his enemies, because this will encourage them to say negative things to contradict you.

The person who listens to gossip is considered worse than the person who tells it; no harm could be done by gossip if no one listened to it.

However, there are a few exceptional circumstances in which gossiping is allowed, or even required. It’s required in a Jewish court of law, because it’s a commandment to give testimony. In a Jewish court of law, a witness is required to reveal information, even if it’s something that was explicitly told in confidence, or will harm a person. A person is required to reveal information to protect a person from immediate, serious harm.

In limited circumstances, one is permitted to reveal information if someone is entering into a relationship that he or she wouldn’t enter if they knew certain information. For example, it may be permissible to tell a person that his prospective business partner is untrustworthy, or that there is something wrong with an intended spouse.

In all of these instances, a person isn’t permitted to reveal information if the same objective could be fulfilled without doing so.

No one I know has perfected not telling Lashon HaRah. It’s natural for people to crave gossip. But the main goal in Judaism is to perfect one’s self each day — to try a little bit harder to take on a new commandment or to simply be a nicer person.

Reach opinion editor Natalie Sikavi at opinion@dailyuw.com.