Q&A: A Liar, Son of a Liar
A Liar, Son of a Liar
Question
People present themselves for election by the public. It is to be expected that people will look into both their virtues and their shortcomings. Sometimes this is a kind of real benefit, to know with whom and with what we are dealing,
and sometimes it is gossip.
Is it reasonable that all the laws of malicious speech become more flexible for someone who puts himself up for election to a position, on the understanding that people will dig, investigate, gossip, etc.?
And in essence, has he waived in advance the standing that every Jew is entitled to under "judge your fellow fairly," and so on?
And likewise, regarding giving someone a nickname:
a name for a politician that has already become widespread?
A name that illustrates his virtues or his shortcomings?
After all, you need to know who he is and what he is like.
Answer
Quite a bit has been written about this, and you can find material online (there is an article by Rabbi Sherlo on Tzohar). It is not reasonable to permit this across the board. And all this is assuming that the laws of malicious speech, etc., are really laws in the full sense. I have commented here in the past about that.
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t conduct a detailed discussion, only made a comment. You can search the site for “Chafetz Chaim” or something like that.
Where and what did the Rabbi comment about their not really being actual laws? I’m not familiar with the topic—could you give a source reference?