Group None

And from this you will see how foolish are those many people whose nature it is always to ask their friends what others have said about them, even if they know that this makes no difference to them in the future. And when they do not want to reveal it, they implore them until they reveal what Ploni has said about them. And in their reply there are some demeaning things that were said about them. And they accept this report as the absolute truth — and, as a result they become absolute haters. Now if we come to weigh the greatness of the harm and to count the number of negative and positive commandments likely to be transgressed by one possessed of this degrading nature, the sheet is too short to contain them (see the introduction and you will understand our words). For, in truth, the issur of accepting lashon hara and rechiluth obtains even if one tells him of his own volition something that affects him in the future. The Torah commands not to believe but only to suspect. And when it does not affect him in the future, even the listening alone [is forbidden] (as mentioned in section 2, above). How much more so [is it forbidden] to stand over his friend and beg him [to tell], until the speaker becomes a speaker of rechiluth, and the listener, an accepter of rechiluth, so that he is a sinner and he causes his friend to sin. Therefore, one must distance himself greatly from inquiring about such a thing, unless it is clear to him that he must know it for his future welfare to know how to guard himself against Ploni.