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over is to prevent him from sinning, how can we then lead him to Revealing the secret will cause damage to the owner of the secret and
eat non-kosher food and transgress other prohibitions? Logically, this foil his plans.
should be prohibited. Moreover, the bad company in jail will likely His words imply that the prohibition of revealing a secret is not
lead him to transgress in areas of modesty. This would be like throw- based on the breach of trust but on the damage the revelation causes.
ing him from the frying pan into the fire. Thus this matter requires Therefore, there is no difference if his friend revealed the secret to him
further study. and relied on him [not to tell] or if he learned the secret by himself. In

The second reason to permit handing him over is that one must both situations, it is forbidden to reveal it.
eliminate evil from the world. People will hear about what happened The Ramban (Bava Basra 59a, s.v. ha detenan) explains the reason
to him and it will instill fear in them and prevent them from sinning. for the prohibition of “damage by sight” (hezek reiya), such as open-
When the Rambam (above) wrote that “It is forbidden to hand over a ing a window opposite an open window of his neighbor’s house. He
Jew to the hands of gentiles… even if he is a wicked person and sins explains that this is a form of damage because of the evil eye, because
habitually,” he is referring to wicked people who are argumentative it can cause lashon hara, and because it is a breach of modesty. And
and possess evil traits but not to thieves who destroy the world. who knows how difficult it would be to get someone’s forgiveness for
this breach of privacy? And even if he forgives, it is still forbidden to
Proof for this is that the source for the Rambam’s words is the knowingly damage someone in this way. Since a person cannot beware
Gemara in Gittin (7a), which relates that Mar Ukba asked Rabbi Ela- of this and stand all day with closed eyes, we are forced to conclude
zar if he could hand over certain people who were pestering him to that one must seal off a window that looks into his neighbor’s home,
the government. Rabbi Elazar answered him with the words, “I said and thus save himself from sin.
I will be careful that I not sin with my mouth. I will keep a curb on The Ramban clearly expresses the fact that the mere act of looking
my mouth while the wicked is before me.” In other words, although
the wicked man is before me I will keep quiet. Rashi explains that the is a sin. This may be included in the prohibition of lashon hara, even if
a person is only looking at the negative information and not planning
pasuk is dealing with people who are deriding the speaker, standing to speak about it.
there and bickering with him. What we learn from this Gemara is
that it is forbidden to hand over annoying or argumentative people. Moreover, there is a prohibition of “stealing one’s knowledge,” or
We do not hear anything regarding thieves. deceiving him, which is explained in Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mish-
pat #228:6). It says that Yaakov “stole” from Lavan (Bereishis 31:20),
We also find in the Rambam (Hilchos Chovel Umazik 8) that “So, and the Targum translates “stole” as “outwitted.” The Ibn Ezra (ibid.,
too all who annoy the public and distress them - it is permissible to 19) explains that Yaakov did not steal anything, but only deceived La-
give them over to the gentiles to hit them and to imprison them and van. It is possible that he who reveals his friend’s secret, thereby going
fine them.” This would certainly apply to thieves as well. against his desire to guard his privacy, is also “stealing his knowledge”

It seems to me that because of the second reason, it is permissible or deceiving him.
to hand him over to the government, despite the concern that he may
be fed forbidden foods, since we are not the ones who will be feeding 1 AnsweR to Question 2
him non-kosher food and we are not forcing him to sin and he will
also have some kosher food available. If he sins and eats non-kosher Is one allowed to reveal the secret of a deceased person? The Chafetz
food, he himself is at fault. There is also no room for concern that Chaim (Hilchos Lashon Hara, Rule 8, Ch. 9) cites the words of the

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