Q&A: The Prohibition of Talebearing
The Prohibition of Talebearing
Question
In tractate Yoma 4b it says: “From where do we know that if someone tells something to another person, it is under the prohibition of ‘he shall not say it’ until he tells him, ‘Go and say it’? As it is stated: ‘And He called to Moses, and the Lord spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying.’” Does this statement have any halakhic significance nowadays as well? If so, what? Also, can the laws of copyright be based on this statement?
Answer
It seems to me that this saying is aggadic-moral in nature and was not brought by the major halakhic decisors. There are issues of talebearing and revealing secrets—and that is a halakhic prohibition that the Chafetz Chaim discussed in detail (though I also suspect that his books sometimes turn aggadah into Jewish law). Copyright was not stated here, so I do not see a connection to this saying. In my article in Techumin on deception and intellectual property I suggested a Torah-level basis for these laws.