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Mekor Hachayim Sefer Chafetz Chayim
Hilchot Esurei Lashon Hara

Kelal Dalet

be deeply humiliated by anyone who heard this story. Even if the
incident is something that many people in Jewish society are not
careful to observe (5), and this person will not suffer great shame,
for example, saying that this person does not want to learn Torah
(6) or that this person said something that was not true (unless there
is some benefit to making the statement, that he told his fellow Jew
that the incident was a lie and his intention is only to be helpful,
as I will explain further on in the 10th Kelal, in the 4th halacha)
or something comparable. Nevertheless, disclosing the incident is
forbidden because ultimately, based on what the speaker said this
person is someone who does not fulfill the mitzvot of the Torah
(in a way that is appropriate to his means or abilities). (One may
not) Even to say something about him in the context of mitzvot,
for example, that he is stingy and does not honor the Shabbat in a
way that is appropriate to his means, since this service of honoring
Shabbat is part of the mitzvah of (Shemot 20:8) “Remember the
Shabbat to keep it holy,” as the Sefer Chareidim states (13th perek,
2nd paragraph). Or even in the context of a rabbinically-mandated
law that specified such-and-such may not be done as a first choice
(7) but this person did do it as a first choice, and someone disclosed
this person’s behavior, even if the disclosure was made not in the
presence of this person and the disclosure is truthful and that the
speaker himself saw this person do it, nevertheless this kind of a
disclosure is forbidden (8).

Be'er Mayim Chayim on page 153

K4/3. However, this law can be divided into specific details

as I will shortly explain: If this person is average (9), just like
a typical Jew, meaning that although he is generally observant
he does occasionally slip and sin, and one can assume (10) his
slip was unintentional or that he did not know (11) that what he
was doing was a sin, or he thought that what he was doing was
something that only the great rabbis were careful not to do, that it
was only a stringency that one could electively take upon himself
if he so decided. Under these circumstances, even someone who
saw him (12) transgress this law several times, most certainly one

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