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Mekor Hachayim Sefer Chafetz Chayim
Hilchot Esurei Lashon Hara

Kelal Dalet

unless his intention is that some good will emerge (45) that will
benefit someone else. However, if these conditions are not fulfilled,
the disclosure (Lashon Hara) cannot be made even if the result of
his words will cause a benefit to accrue to someone else since the
respondent’s intention was to denigrate the subject of this inquiry
(46) (and the inquiry is forbidden to be made). Therefore, the one
making the inquiry must follow the guidelines we have written.

Be'er Mayim Chayim on page 239

K4/12. If someone violated the law and spoke Lashon Hara about

someone else and now wants to do Teshuvah, doing that Teshuvah
is conditional. If the people who were listening to him did not
believe what he had said and the person who was the subject of
the Lashon Hara was not denigrated or diminished at all in their
esteem, then the sin becomes one that is (only) an issue between the
speaker and G‑d since this person acted in a way that was contrary
to G‑d’s command, as I discussed in the Introduction. The remedy
is doing Teshuvah, meaning, remorse for having committed a sin
before G‑d, admission of one’s sin and a sincere resolve never to
repeat it again. This remedy applies to any sin a person commits
against G‑d. But if the subject of this Lashon Hara was demeaned
in the esteem of those who listened to the speaker’s comments and
it resulted in damages to this subject or to his assets or caused him
emotional discomfort and pain, then the sin is like any other sin man
commits against another man. Even Yom Kippur and the speaker’s
own death will not be enough to absolve him of his crime unless
this speaker goes to the person who is the subject of the Lashon
Hara and asks forgiveness (47). If this “victim” is appeased and
forgives the speaker, then the only remaining sin is the one between
him and G‑d and the remedy is as I indicated above.

Even if this person who is the subject of the Lashon Hara is still
unaware of the speaker’s remarks, the speaker must go over to this
person and tell him that what he did (48) was halachically wrong and
asks forgiveness because the speaker knows that word of what he
said was the cause of the adverse outcome experienced by the victim

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volume 2