Kosher Shabbos Protests

The Chofetz Chaim, zt”l, advocated protesting against flagrant Shabbos violation in his times. Nevertheless, he had certain general rules that he followed to ensure that his rebukes were as effective as possible. The first rule was to avoid protesting on Shabbos itself. He explained that while Jews are involved in sinning it is much more difficult to convince them to change. As the Mishnah famously states in Avos: "עבירה גוררת עבירה"—“One sin draws another in its wake.” When Jews are involved in sin, they find it much easier to sin again by disregarding the protestor—or worse, by falling into outright sinful behavior to retaliate. And the Chofetz Chaim would say that the inverse also holds true. The Chofetz Chaim would tell those who went around selling his sefarim to bring them to shuls after davening. He reasoned that after having davened with a minyan, people would be much more likely to do the mitzvah of purchasing a sefer on guarding their speech.
Not surprisingly, the Shabbos protests lodged by the Chofetz Chaim were very effective. On one occasion, he went to a certain city with his brother-in-law to raise money for the yeshiva in Radin. When he heard that the Jews there did not keep Shabbos he wanted to leave immediately, but the locals begged him to remain so as not to shame their city. Instead of asking for donations from money tainted by chilul Shabbos, the Chofetz Chaim stayed a couple of weeks and gave three fiery derashos for the thousands of Jewish residents. In each of them he discussed the terrible ills of chilul Shabbos and the vast spiritual attainments of keeping Shabbos.
Later, when the Chofetz Chaim recounted this story to his son, he remarked, “Boruch Hashem, as a result of those derashos, three hundred stores closed for Shabbos! When people heard about this it made a great kiddush Hashem.”

Lashon Hara L'Toeles

A certain group of students were learning in a yeshiva in Israel that was known as an environment where false dei’os flourished. These students knew that the only way to convince their fellow students of the folly of such opinions was to speak against the rabbis who championed such opinions. But they wondered if this was halachically permitted. After all, talking against a talmid chacham is a very serious sin.
To their surprise, when they went to the Chazon Ish, zt”l, and asked him if this was permitted he refused to answer them. They decided to return a second time but the Chazon Ish was silent yet again.
On their third visit, he began to ask them numerous questions “What are your names? Where are you from? How long have you been learning?”
When he was finally satisfied with their answers he said, “In terms of the halachos of a talmid chacham... Although the rabanim you have named have a position, they do not learn every free moment. The Chofetz Chaim rules that only one who knows how to learn and whose Torah study is his exclusive occupation is a talmid chacham. These people are like tailors and shoemakers that work to earn a living.
“But that’s only regarding the question of whether disparaging these particular rabbis constitutes embarrassing a talmid chacham. If you spread negative opinions about them, you will still violate the prohibition of lashon hara. You wish to speak l’toleles? Let me tell you how to speak lashon hara l’toeleles. Rav Chaim Brisker only attended the first Agudah convention because, during the proceedings, someone spoke against a certain communal activist and claimed that something he had done had caused trouble. Rav Chaim immediately stood up and proclaimed, ‘It is prohibited to sit here since people speak lashon hara!’
“But why was this lashon hara?” asked the Chazon Ish. “The person speaking was addressing an important concern and every word he spoke was absolutely true. It was forbidden because the person spoke in a judgmental and self-righteous manner. If the speaker at the convention had said instead, ‘Rabbosai! This person’s error has brought about a terrible problem! Let us all work together to try and rectify it!’ this would have been lashon hara l’toeles.”

Guarding Your Speech

It is quite common for people to slander a worker or employer who failed to fulfill his commitments. These people figure that this type of slander must be a mitzvah to help others avoid a business connection with a person who does not fulfill his obligations. Yet the Chofetz Chaim did not think this was a simple matter at all.
He said, “One must be very vigilant not to give himself license to recount to others how when he did business with so-and-so, the person robbed or cheated him, or publicly shamed him. Even though he knows that he is telling only the absolute truth, he cannot do it unless he needs assistance catching the thief to retrieve his stolen property.
“Clearly he is not telling this story to others to protect them from being cheated or stolen from. His motivation stems from a desire to embarrass the person who did him wrong. The more this person’s words are accepted by others, the happier he will be. The reason why this is prohibited is because one can only tell another lashon hara to benefit the hearer if he is not doing it out of hatred or spite.”
The Chofetz Chaim continued on this topic, “One must be exceedingly careful even when asking others to help him apprehend the thief, since if he does not take great care he will easily stumble on this heter into the trap of his yetzer hara and transgress the Torah prohibition of lashon hara.
“In addition, he must be absolutely sure that he was robbed and that his friend is certainly not entitled to what he took. This detail is exceedingly difficult to verify since no person sees his own faults. But if he is mistaken and then goes around to others ostensibly for aid to apprehend a thief, he is actually violating the prohibition of motzi shem ra!”