THE DILEMMA
I’m a fundraiser for an organization that helps struggling teens. Once a year, I make my rounds speaking in different shuls around the country, and this year, I think I hit upon the most negative group of Jews in all of America. They kept telling me that it was a waste of money because the kids didn’t want help, and if they did, there were plenty of local people they could go to.
At my next stop, everyone was concerned and wanted to help. I started my speech by joking that I was happy to be in such a warm community, so I could defrost from my reception in the other town, which I named. Now I think it might have been loshon hora, even though I didn’t name any people. Was it? — Yaakov
THE ANSWER
The Chofetz Chaim teaches that speaking negatively about an entire community of G-d-fearing Jews, just because they didn’t give a person the welcome or the help he expected, is loshon hora, just as it would be about an individual. The community members are still considered G-d-fearing Jews, even though they didn’t show generosity for this particular cause. In some ways, speaking about a whole community is worse because it doesn’t stain just one person’s reputation — rather, everyone from that town has been maligned. The Chofetz Chaim points this out, saying, “It is certainly a grave sin!”
CHOFETZ CHAIM HERITAGE FOUNDATION
