פרשת אחרי מות - קדושים תשי"ב - "לא תלך רכיל בעמך"

He who bears tales against his fellow violates a prohibitive commandment, saying: "Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people" (Lev. 19.16.); and although the punishment of flogging is not inflicted for violating this charge, it is a gross iniquity, and is the cause of the slaughtering of many souls in Israel; it is because thereof, that following this commandment is this Verse: "Neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor" (Ibid.). Now, go ye and learn of that which happened to Doeg the Edomite.¹First Samuel, 22.9-19. G.

Who is a sycophant? One who loads himself up with matters, and goes from this one to that one, saying to each, such did that man say, thus and such have I heard concerning that man, even though it be true, behold him, he destroys the universe. There is yet an extremely grosser iniquity, which, too, is included in this prohibitive commandment, and that is, the evil tongue, one who spreads scandal about his fellow even though he be telling truth. If he be lying, he is called a maligner who invents an evil name against his fellow. The owner of an evil tongue, behold him, he sits in company and relates, saying: thus and such did that certain party, thus and such were his parents, and thus and such I did hear about him and of course, he relates scandalous matters. Of him, the Verse says: "May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaketh proud things" (Ps. 12.4).

The wise men said: "There are three transgresssions which call forth retribution from the man who perpetrates in this world, and disinherit him from a share in the world to come. They are: idolatry, adultery, and bloodshed; but the evil tongue outweighs them all" (Arakin, 16b). The wise men, moreover, said:³Arakin, 16b. G. "He who speaks with an evil tongue is like an atheist, for it is said: 'Who have said, Our tongues will we make mighty, our lips are with us, who is Lord over us'"? (Ps. 12.5.). And, again, the wise men said: "The evil tongue kills three persons, the one who speaks it, the one of whom it is spoken, and the one who receives it". In fact, the greatest harm comes to the one who receives the evil report.⁴Ibid.; Shabbat, 56. G.

לא תשא שמע שוא THOU SHALT NOT HEAR A FALSE REPORT — Take it as the Targum renders it: thou shalt not accept (listen to) a false report. This is a prohibition addressed to one who is about to accept a slanderous statement, and it is addressed also to a judge — that he should not hear the pleadings of one party to a suit before the other appears (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 22:23:1; Sanhedrin 7b).

לא תלך רכיל THOU SHALT NOT GO ABOUT AS A TALE BEARER — I say that because all those who sow discord between people and all who speak slander go into their friends' houses in order to spy out what evil they can see there, or what evil they can hear there so that they may tell it in the streets —they are called הולכי רכיל which it the same as הולכי רגילה, "people who go about spying"; espiement in O. F. A proof of my statement is the fact that we do not find anywhere the term רגיל used in Scripture except in connection with the expression הלך "to go". Examples are: the phrase here, לא תלך רכיל; (Jeremiah 6:28) "[They are all] walking as spies: they are brass and iron". But as for any other expressions for “slander”, the verb הלך is not used with them. Examples are (Psalms 101:5) "whoso privily slandereth his neighbour”; (Psalms 120:2) "false tongue"; (Psalms 12:4) "the tongue that speaketh proud things (slander)". For this reason I say that this expression (הולך רכיל) means "going about ומרגל, and spying out” (רגל = רכל), because the כ may interchange with ,ג since all letters the pronounciation of which are of the same place in the organs of speech may interchange with each other e. g., בי"ת with גימ"ל ,פ"א with כ"ף or with נו"ן ;קו"ף with זי"ן ;למ"ד with צד"י. And in a similar sense we have, (II Samuel 19:28) "He spied against thy servant [to my lord]” which implies, "he spied me out with subtly in order to speak evil about me to my lord״ (and thus וירגל comes to mean "to slander”). Similar is (Psalms 15:8): לא רגל על לשונו which means, "he has not spied out in order to have evil on his tongue”. Similarly the רוכל, the trader, is one who goes round and searches for (spies out) all kinds of merchandise, and so also the seller of perfumes which women use to make themselves nice, because he constantly goes about in the villages, he is called רוכל, which has the same meaning as רוגל. And its translation in the Targum לא תיכול קורצין, has the same meaning as (Daniel 3:8) "and they slandered (אכלו קורציהון) the Jews”; and as (Berakhot 58a) "he slandered him (אכל ביה קורצא בי מלכא) to the king”. It seems to me that people had the custom to eat a little snack in the house of him who listened to their slanderous words, and this served as the final confirmation that his (the slanderer's) statements were well founded and that he would maintain the truth of them. This "snack” was called אכילת קורצין, the word קורצא being connected in meaning with the root קרץ in (Proverbs 6:13) "He winketh (קורץ) with his eyes”, for it is the manner of all who go about slandering to wink with their eyes and to suggest their slanderous statements by innuendos in order that others who happen to hear them should not understand them.

לא תלך רכיל THOU SHALT NOT GO ABOUT AS A TALE BEARER — I say that because all those who sow discord between people and all who speak slander go into their friends' houses in order to spy out what evil they can see there, or what evil they can hear there so that they may tell it in the streets —they are called הולכי רכיל which it the same as הולכי רגילה, "people who go about spying"; espiement in O. F. A proof of my statement is the fact that we do not find anywhere the term רגיל used in Scripture except in connection with the expression הלך "to go". Examples are: the phrase here, לא תלך רכיל; (Jeremiah 6:28) "[They are all] walking as spies: they are brass and iron". But as for any other expressions for “slander”, the verb הלך is not used with them. Examples are (Psalms 101:5) "whoso privily slandereth his neighbour”; (Psalms 120:2) "false tongue"; (Psalms 12:4) "the tongue that speaketh proud things (slander)". For this reason I say that this expression (הולך רכיל) means "going about ומרגל, and spying out” (רגל = רכל), because the כ may interchange with ,ג since all letters the pronounciation of which are of the same place in the organs of speech may interchange with each other e. g., בי"ת with גימ"ל ,פ"א with כ"ף or with נו"ן ;קו"ף with זי"ן ;למ"ד with צד"י. And in a similar sense we have, (II Samuel 19:28) "He spied against thy servant [to my lord]” which implies, "he spied me out with subtly in order to speak evil about me to my lord״ (and thus וירגל comes to mean "to slander”). Similar is (Psalms 15:8): לא רגל על לשונו which means, "he has not spied out in order to have evil on his tongue”. Similarly the רוכל, the trader, is one who goes round and searches for (spies out) all kinds of merchandise, and so also the seller of perfumes which women use to make themselves nice, because he constantly goes about in the villages, he is called רוכל, which has the same meaning as רוגל. And its translation in the Targum לא תיכול קורצין, has the same meaning as (Daniel 3:8) "and they slandered (אכלו קורציהון) the Jews”; and as (Berakhot 58a) "he slandered him (אכל ביה קורצא בי מלכא) to the king”. It seems to me that people had the custom to eat a little snack in the house of him who listened to their slanderous words, and this served as the final confirmation that his (the slanderer's) statements were well founded and that he would maintain the truth of them. This "snack” was called אכילת קורצין, the word קורצא being connected in meaning with the root קרץ in (Proverbs 6:13) "He winketh (קורץ) with his eyes”, for it is the manner of all who go about slandering to wink with their eyes and to suggest their slanderous statements by innuendos in order that others who happen to hear them should not understand them.

לא תלך רכיל, do not go around bearing tales (untrue ones). We find a similar verse in Daniel 3,8 “Chaldeans slandered the Jews.” Samuel II 22,14 ירעם משמים, G’d thundered forth from heaven, is also translated as אכלי, by Yonathan ben Uzziel, being the equivalent of the Hebrew רכיל in our verse, i.e. raising one’s voice.

§ The mishna teaches: And from where is it derived that when the judge leaves the courtroom, he should not say: I deemed you exempt and my colleagues deemed you liable, but what can I do, as my colleagues outnumbered me and consequently you were deemed liable? About this it is stated: “You shall not go as a talebearer among your people” (Leviticus 19:16), and it says: “One who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets, but one who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter” (Proverbs 11:13). The Sages taught in a baraita: From where is it derived that when the judge leaves he should not say: I deemed you exempt and my colleagues deemed you liable, but what can I do, as my colleagues outnumbered me and consequently you were deemed liable? The verse states: “You shall not go as a talebearer among your people” (Leviticus 19:16), and it says: “One who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets” (Proverbs 11:13).