"According to the rules of lashon ha-ra, you may only pass along RELEVANT information, true or false."
I am sorry if it is tricky, but having been called (accused of being?) a private person myself, often I learn important and useful things that are helpful for me by listening to tales for enjoyment.
So, my first question is - how is the talker supposed to know which information would be relevant? Or is silence always considered better than revealing information? But what about situations when not knowing brings harm, yet the silent person has no way to KNOW that the silence would bring harm? Preventative talking would still be a sin even so?
What is the responsibility of the listener? Is it sin if I do not talk about the problems I grapple with, so making it impossible for others to know what information WOULD be relevant?
I do find this a really fascinating set of problems/ rules/ possibilities of interpretation.
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Date: 2008-01-03 09:30 am (UTC)I am sorry if it is tricky, but having been called (accused of being?) a private person myself, often I learn important and useful things that are helpful for me by listening to tales for enjoyment.
So, my first question is - how is the talker supposed to know which information would be relevant? Or is silence always considered better than revealing information? But what about situations when not knowing brings harm, yet the silent person has no way to KNOW that the silence would bring harm? Preventative talking would still be a sin even so?
What is the responsibility of the listener? Is it sin if I do not talk about the problems I grapple with, so making it impossible for others to know what information WOULD be relevant?
I do find this a really fascinating set of problems/ rules/ possibilities of interpretation.