Someone innocently wanted to show me a report from one of the "Charedi" news outlets. "Look, someone you know very well is in BIIIG trouble with the law, was arrested and is looking at the rest of his life in jail".
I politely declined to look. Why?
Let us say that a Charedi offered me a piece of pork. Would I eat it?
Would you?
But he is "Charedi"? He even put a kippah and tzitzis on the pork.
No way. Not interested.
Why?
Because it is treif!
Lashon hara is ALSO treif. And equated to murder. It is also forbidden:-). If the story is true then it is lashon hara. If there are falsehoods [there usually are some] then it is motzi sheim ra. Who needs it?!
Was I curious. VERY! Did I spend a lot of time trying to figure out who it was. Sadly, yes. But my curiosity [it is always more interesting when scandals involve people you know] doesn't permit issurei di-oraisa.
Four messages:
1] Learn hilchos lashon hara and review again and again. ESPECIALLY during the 3 weeks.
2] There is no heter of which I am aware to publicize lashon hara. The heter of bi-apei tlasa is very limited and this is not the forum to discuss it [I googled it and came up with one of my shiurim. So I guess that I already discussed it. Maybe I will write about it bi-rtzos Hashem darkeinu...].
3] Having a Yiddish or Hebrew name doesn't guarantee that a website is kosher.
4] Crime NEVER pays. I don't know what the person did or didn't do but crime NEVER pays.
