[Avodah] Lashon Hara

[Michael Makovi]

> It seems to me that speaking LH about a non-Jew would fall in the
> category of a chillul haShem if it got back to the person or if any
> goy heard it or heard about it.
> It certainly would not do the Jew any good, so therefore for darchei
> shalom, it should be assur.
> ri

And based on this, I can add more controversy [grin]. After
propounding my theory of the Torah only dealing with cases of Eretz
Yisrael (viz. the ger toshav/gentile settler and the nochri/gentile
transient) and not cases of chutz (viz. our gentile neighbor while we
are in galut), and this lacuna being a mere loophole (IMHO), we can
say:

According to Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits, darchei shalom could be used as
a moral consideration to make an absolute prohibition against LH
regarding a gentile (I'm not sure whether it would be d'oraita or
d'rabanan; I need to study Not in Heaven some more). But since the
Talmud is sealed, we cannot do so. But were the Oral Law not written,
we'd be able to do this even today.

Mikha'el Makovi