[Avodah] Lashon Hara about non-Jews

[Micha Berger]

The question of why there is no issur of LH against a nachri given
that LH is destructive to one's middos is a general one. There are
many things that it pays to avoid for which there is no issur. As I
recently quoted besheim the Ramchal, there are three tiers: issur,
gezeirah and perishus.

Midos in general do not get addressed by specific dinim; they tend to
be left to the more amorphous "judge the situation using this
priority" type chiyuvim, the QTYD mitzvos -- "*Q*edoshim tihyu",
"ve'asisa ha*T*ov veha*Y*ashar", "vehalakhta bi*D*rakhav".

The areivim zeh bazeh issue would be why LH rises above assessment of
the situation to the level of a formal din, whereas LH against
nachriim does not. It would seem to me that the nafqa mina is that LH
against nachriim could be overriden situationally by something less
than a conflicting chiyuv.

(The question of being overridden in the case of need of the
information is irrelevant; as LH is only assur in any case where there
is no to'eles.)

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
http://www.aishdas.org   you must know where to slaughter and what
Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv