[Avodah] Sheker LHara The Boss who wants his workers support

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Feb 23, 2023 at 04:42:28PM +1100, Rabbi Meir G. Rabi via Avodah wrote:
> It is absolutely forbidden for someone who asks a knowledgeable person if
> the car she intends to purchase is a 'good buy' to say anything but the
> truth. And if it is a good friend such communications are LOSE LOSE bcs if
> you advise not to buy what she has her heart set on, you will probably be
> the nasty fellow; and if you do not then later, when the cars faults appear
> you will also be blamed.

Deeming something a "good buy" can have a single objective answer. For
example, if the thing is in reality defective. But often it's subjective,
and therefore has multiple right answers.

Your mistake is making this an emes or sheqer issue, and thus sheqer is
geneivah, where that's explicitly not what I spoke about.

For example, I just replaced my refrigerator. The GE model was slightly
larger, but also more money than the Whirlpool. Reading reviews, each
tends to break in different ways, and different web sites disagree as
to which is more likely to last me longer.

This is like the kalah na'ah vechasudah (al pi Rashi) example I gave.
It's a matter of opinion. And NOT of lying. Reinforcing your boss's
opinion is just like reinforcing the chasan's -- it's the valid opinion
you're expected to express (by both the boss and the customer, FWIW),
not lying about the bride or the product.

This gets into the same question as pasqening differently than one's
rebbe. Sure, in the rare case that one's rebbe pasqens X and it's
obvious the din is Y, then one can't simply pasqen X. But neither is
the rebellious member of Sanhedrin isn't a zaqein mamarei if he pasqens
against the cot on a zil qeri bei rav issue. Real pesaq is where eilu
va'eilu, both are among the 49 reasons letaheir and 49 reasons letam'ei,
and it's a matter of which answer to back. Knowing one's rebbe decided
differently can change one's calculus about how to weigh the various
factors.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Like a bird, man can reach undreamed-of
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   heights as long as he works his wings.
Author: Widen Your Tent      But if he relaxes them for but one minute,
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    he plummets downward.   - Rav Yisrael Salanter