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VOL-1
1
Forward to the english translation of Sefer
Chafetz Chayim
הדעו םירשי דוסב בבל לכב 'ה הדוא
With a heart filled with joy and gladness we thank HaKadosh
baruch Hu for leading us by the hand to this day to see the
publication of sefer chafetz chayim in english translation,
entitled Mazal elul.
by way of a history of events that led to this publication, this
effort first began in the fall of 5755 as a Shabbat table discussion.
at that time my wife הירמשי 'ה asked that i research and prepare
a topic during the week and present it at our shabbat table. the
derasha had to be informative, preferably on a subject that we
knew little about, and had to hold the interest of the children and
adults seated at our table. in this framework we all learned a little
bit more about sefer yehoshua, sefer shoftim, sefer daniel, sefer
Shir HaShirim and Sefer Mishle. At first the drasha was spoken
from notes, then posters were drawn during the week displaying
maps and timelines and genealogies as visual aids to the spoken
presentation. as the learning of sefer Mishle deepened i began
to type my notes and pass copies around to some of the people
seated at our table to help them follow the discussion. at the
point when we reached the end of sefer Mishle i began asking
some friends and acquaintances in our beit Midrash ateret torah
for suggestions as to what topic to speak on next. one of men
in the beit Midrash, Mr. leon sutton suggested learning the
sefer chafetz chayim and the laws of shemirat Halashon. the
idea was appealing as it met all of the criteria for our shabbat
d’rash. this happened around the middle of tammuz 5761. i
began to prepare notes during the week on the Mekor Hachayim
by translating the text and distributing copies to our family. a
week or two after beginning this new topic my son’s father in
law, rabbi Mayer nechmad shlit’ah suggested translating not
two parts: (1) laws pertaining to the esur of lashon Hara, and
(2) laws pertaining to the esur of rechilut…i have divided these
two parts into sections \ Kelalim, and then each Kelal into several
divisions, in order to present to the public a simplified, concise,
readable format. in each division i attempted to bring illustrative
examples so that the reader can take them to heart and become
careful in his speech in a very practical way….
i have entitled this entire volume “chafetz chayim” based on
the pasuk in tehilim (31:11) “Who is the person who wants
to live a long life.” in order not to belabor the public as they
read through each law and its sources, because of the extensive
material that can sometimes be associated with a particular law, i
have expressed the law in two parts: the first part is the essential
law that was distilled from all of its sources and is presented
succinctly. this part is entitled “Mekor Hachayim” (source of
life) because a person’s ability to speak evolves from the living
soul within him, as the torah teaches (beresheet 2:7) “and man
was made as a living soul.” onkelos explains this as g-d giving
man the ability to speak and express his thoughts. the second
part is the commentary which is the basis of the essential law is
entitled “be’er Mayim chayim” (a wellspring of life-sustaining
water) because it is the source from which the Mekor Hachayim
was drawn.” (end quote).
the sefer that is before you is the product of a 7-year effort of a
group of talmidei chachamim who worked tirelessly to render
into english the words of the chafetz chayim and present them
to an english speaking public who would otherwise have a
limited access to the study of these halachot. the translating
text strives to accurately portray these halachot in a style that
flows as one would speak to his friend. Two editions of Sefer
chafetz chayim provided the source material for this translation;
the agudat notzrei lashon (13 edition, yerushalayim 5761)
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and the chevrat poral ta’asiyot edition (bnei brak, 5751).
additionally, two other sefarim that are commentaries on sefer