Group None

All that we have said applies if he knows the nature of the cheated one to be such that if the truth of the cheating is made known to him, he will not do anything by himself, but will summon him to beth-din and follow the din of the Torah. But if he knows him to be one who, if he is apprised of this, will "rule for himself" and arrest him or return the merchandise to him or not pay him what he owes him, without the assessment of beth-din, one must take heed in revealing it to him, for in order to rescue himself from forbidden speech, three more conditions must be satisfied:

a) The subject of cheating (i.e., how he cheated him) must be known to the tellers themselves, as opposed to their hearing from others that there is cheating in this place, in which instance they are forbidden to tell him.

b) The tellers must be two.

c) The harm caused the cheater by their words must not be greater than that of the din resulting from their words in beth-din. But if they know the nature of the cheated one to be such that he would cause the cheater a greater loss than that determined by the din and that he would not abide afterwards by the din for the cheater, it is forbidden to reveal it to him in any case.

And with the first five conditions, there are, altogether, eight conditions [for revealing it]. And even if they all coincide, this avails only to rescue oneself from forbidden speech. But, in any event, he does not rescue himself from the issur of "abetting transgression." For, according to the din, it is forbidden for the hearer to do anything according to their words, even if many speakers told him, so long as they did not testify against him in beth-din and beth-din have permitted him to do so (viz. above, Principle 6, sections 9 and 10). Therefore, one must be extremely careful not to reveal anything to a person whose nature is to "rule for himself" without the permission of beth-din.

And now, my brother, see, how in our many sins, so many people stumble so in this, that when one takes merchandise from a store and acquires it with meshichah [(a mode of acquisition)], according to the din, and shows it to his friend, asking him if it is worth what he paid for it, not only does he not praise it, but he even demeans it, saying, "He really cheated you!" And he is not careful at the time to determine its current market price. For very often the price changes in a short time. And he is also [not careful to determine] how much he overcharged him, whether or not it is an admissible overcharge according to the din of the Torah. And also when he overcharged him. For perhaps the time for showing it to a merchant or to a relative has already passed, so that [any protest] would be of no avail. But he would only be injecting great hatred into the ear of the buyer against the seller, and thereby be a literal "talebearer," "peddling" talk from one to the other.

And many times he speaks against him out of hatred, and it becomes clear afterwards that it is worth what he paid for it. And quite often the seller is caused a great loss; for he will incite him [the buyer], saying, "Go return the merchandise and throw it in his face. And if you are ashamed to do it yourself, send it with someone else. And if he doesn't want to take it back, don't pay him what you owe him for this merchandise or [what you owe him] from before!" (And very often this is against the din and is actual theft and extortion.) And when he returns the merchandise to the seller and he refuses to take it, saying that he is causing him a loss according to the din of the Torah, they come to quarrel and to greatly abuse each other.

See how many evils this talebearer has committed: He has transgressed the negative commandment of "You shall not go talebearing among your people" (if he does not pay heed to the aforementioned conditions), and [he has transgressed] "You shall not place a stumbling block before the blind" in counseling his friend to return the merchandise unlawfully or [in causing] other losses and in generating quarrels leading to [transgression of] "You shall not wrong, one man, his fellow" and to [transgressions of] many other negative commandments that result from quarreling, Heaven preserve us. And if so, how much must one take care not to intervene in such things without reflecting well upon what we have written above. And then the L–rd will be with him, so that nothing adverse will result from his counsel.