[Avodah] Lashon Hara about Eretz Yisrael

[Moshe Feldman]

Last year, I posed the question: 
> Is it an aveira to speak lashon hara (i.e., the truth) about Eretz
>Yisrael, or just to speak falsehood about EY? 
>Also, assuming that there is an issur of lashon hara about EY, to what
>extent does it apply to speaking negatively about Israeli society (as
>opposed to just the land)?

(See the discussion at
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/getindex.cgi?section=L#LASHON%20HARA%20ABOUT%2
0ERETZ%20YISRAEL) 

R' SBA asked:
<<Would saying that summer in EY is unbearably humid or the buses
send up too much pollution be LH?
>>

In last week's Shabbat b'Shabbato
(http://www.moreshet.co.il/sedra/UploadFiles/shabat/1173.pdf p.10), R.
Mordechai Eliyahu wrote that one is not allowed to complain about the heat
in EY.  He brought a proof from R. Ami and R. Assi in Kesubos 112b, who made
sure to be in the shade during the summer and in the sun during the winter.
Rashi there explains that they did that in order to make sure that they
would not complain about living in EY.  I would add that similarly, R.
Chanina (112a) would smoothen out the roads in order that (according to
Rashi) there wouldn't be a shem ra about the roads in EY.

Kol tuv,
Moshe 

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