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ɳ Response to Question Two
Anyone who can exert influence and prevent another person from
sinning is obligated to do so as it is written,“Thoroughly rebuke your
colleague and do not bear sin on his account” (Vayikra 19:17). We
learn in maseches Shabbos (54b), “Anyone who is able to protest the
wrongdoing of the members of his household and does not do so
is caught up in their sins; if he can protest against… the people of
his city and does not, he is caught up in their sins; if he can protest
against…the whole world and he does not he is caught up in sins of
the entire world.”
See the mishnah’s account there:“Rabbi Elazar ben Azariyah’s cow
would go out [on Shabbos] with a ribbon [wound] between its horns
without the approval of the Sages.” It is explained there that the cow
actually belonged to Rabbi Elazar’s neighbor, but because he did not
protest her allowing her cow out in this manner the cow is referred
to as having been his. The Yerushalmi explains (Shabbos, 5,4) that the
teeth of that tzaddik darkened from the many fasts that he fasted in
order to atone for that sin of not protesting his neighbor’s lapse.4
ɳ Response to Question Three
In Chafetz Chaim (Hilchos Lashon Hara, 6,4) it is written, “As is
known, not only the person speaking lashon hara transgresses but
also the listener. However, it is sometimes a mitzvah to listen to an-
other person speaking in a derogatory manner about someone else,
for example if the listener judges that by hearing the whole story he
will be able to show the speaker or the other listeners that didn’t hap-
pen that way and that the role of the person being spoken about was
not as is being imputed to him.
“Another situation in which it is a mitzvah for the listener to listen
to the speaker’s lashon hara is if someone comes to complain to him
about a colleague and – being acquainted with the speaker – he knows
4. See our earlier comments on this topic in siman 63.
Honoring parents and slander in psychotherapy 2 207
