You made the wrong move – you sold something to one customer when another customer had already reserved it. If you accept the blame for failing to honor your word to the first customer, may you mention the name of the person who ultimately bought the item?
Gedalia Glick sold good quality secondhand furniture. His neighbor Nachum was expecting four branches of his extended family for Pesach, and he needed to buy more chairs. He stopped by Gedalia’s store to check out the merchandise and spotted six comfortable, matching chairs that suited his needs perfectly. “I’m going to take these chairs,” Nachum told Gedalia. “I’ll come back tomorrow with my neighbor’s cargo van to pay for them and pick them up.” “Great!” said Gedalia. “Don’t worry. The chairs aren’t going anywhere.”
However, a while later, Reuven showed up. “Wow! They’re still here!” he said to Gedalia, pointing to the chairs Nachum wanted. “I saw them a couple of days ago and I really liked them. I’m glad no one else took them. I even brought a pick-up truck, so I can bring them straight from here to my house!”
Gedalia couldn’t bear to deflate Reuven’s enthusiasm. “These things happen in business,” he reasoned silently. “Nachum will understand.”
Nachum did not understand. “You’re 100 percent right!” Gedalia told him. “I should have told Reuven that someone else had claimed the merchandise. He didn’t mean to do anything wrong. He didn’t even know!”
In taking the blame, has Gedalia prevented the story from becoming lashon hara?
THE DILEMMA
THE HALACHA
SHMIRAS HALASHON
Gedalia has not succeeded because Nachum is bound to have negative feelings about Reuven despite Gedalia’s acceptance of the blame. Instead, Gedalia should have explained with a vague statement like, "I made a mistake and sold them to someone else."
Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation
Sefer Chofetz Chaim, Rechilus Klal 9:15 . Reviewed by Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Lowy
