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Sefer Chafetz Chayim
Hilchot Esurei Lashon Hara

Kelal Dalet - Halachah 7

as a reprimand to stop his foolishness, then it is likely that one can
also approach his rebbe directly with this story since his motivation
is to help this person stop his sinning and not to humiliate him.

Now to resume the prior subject.

Even if two witnesses watched this person commit a sin, and this
person is likely to repeat this sin, nevertheless the disclosure can
only be made to the city’s judicial authorities and to no one else
because in actuality these two witnesses saw this person commit
a sin only once. Maybe his Yetzer Hara got the better of him this
one time but afterwards he was regretful and became saddened
and embittered because of what he had done and now did a sincere
Teshuvah. Accordingly this person is still categorized as “your
fellow Jew” (and is entitled to the benefit of the doubt as a Torah
imperative).

Daily Halacha: 14 Cheshvan, 13 Adar, 13 Tammuz; Leap Year- 14Cheshvan, 23 Adar I, 3 Tammuz

K4/7. All of these laws discussed until this point relate specifically

to someone who becomes remorseful after committing a sin. But if
the observer has examined this person’s lifestyle (29) and determined
that he has no fear of G‑d and constantly behaves in a style of
living that is inimical to the Torah, for example, like one who is
contemptuous of Torah and mitzvot or who considers one particular
aveirah to be irrelevant, and that society as a whole knows about
this aveirah, meaning, whether the sin which the observer wants to
disclose was intentionally repeated by this person several times or
this person intentionally repeated a different sin that was commonly
known to society to be a sin and it is obvious that this person is
living this lifestyle not because his Yetzer Hara got the better of
him to violate Hashem’s words, but because he made a conscious
decision to repudiate Hashem and has no fear of Him. Therefore,
it is permissible to utterly degrade this person and to disclose his
shame (30) privately and publicly.

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