Defamation |
Loshen
Horreh
Loshen Horreh can be translated as the evil tongue or the besmirching of
someone's good name by spreading
rumors about him or her. We saw it in the recent election, when the two New York
State would be governors were competing for that post. It was Carl Paladino who
was the greatest victim of Andrew Cuomo’s
evil tongue, as Cuomo's campaign belittled Paladino
to the point where his image was painted blacker than black.
Carl had worked very hard and spent his own money to win the race.
His plan for improving the current dilemma was practical and rational.
The evil passages that were spoken and posted about this human being gave
him no opportunity to have even a fighting chance to earn the votes that his
ideas and his sincere plans presented. As
Jews, we have for eons of centuries experienced the evil tongue, the loshen
horreh. The world’s “Reschoim”/ evildoers, have been gifted in
ever increasing numbers to spread their hatred, their anger and their ill will,
their jealousies and much more venomousness upon “the people of the book,
the chosen people”... chosen for outbursts, to be victims of abuse both
verbal and physical. Anti-semitism
was most rampant in Russia, in Czechoslovakia, in Germany.
The Russians committed their projected hatred through pogroms as long as
can be remembered. Hitler and his
Aryans, his Nazis, his German,s found the final solution, extermination of six
million of our beloved brethren. These
victims and their fate were
invented in the brains of that nation. They targeted the Jewish people,
the contributors to science, to learning, to the economy and to much
more. It was Goebbels, Goering ,
Mengele the MD experimenter and killer, to
name but an infinitesimal few, who
gave directions and commands to carry out the nation's violent acts.
It was Streicher, a very ugly sadistic Nazi, who painted hideous cartoons
of Jews with long noses, scraggly beards, caftans and black unseemly hats in
newspapers where he not only exhibited these cartoons but created hideous rhymes
that went into the Sturmer (a hateful Nazi paper) and other hateful sheets of
propaganda. Streicher’s evil
tongue and psychopathic brain added script to the unthinkable horrors and
defamations. If
diatribe and hatred is impressed into
the human psyche long enough it becomes a belief, especially of those who are
uninitiated. Loshen Horreh is one of the biggest neveres (sins) against
humanity, whether it be directed against a person or an entire nation. To
destroy a person’s good name is unforgivable.
Our
late and great President Abraham Lincoln believed so strongly in not shaming
people that he would mispronounce a word if the speaker mispronounced the given
word, so that the individual with the poor speech pattern would not be shamed by
a possible correction. People who are most loved by their friends and
acquaintances are those that do not embarrass others and value who and what they
are, accept that which they can and cannot do, and do not search for flaws in
their fellow humans. Although
there is an unspoken law to refrain from giving poor references for prospective
employees, damage can be done by insinuation or body language when
information is imparted. Tone
of voice or body language can be so
presented that the inquirer can readily comprehend the deeper meaning of that
which has been superficially stated. An
employee may have had difficulty in
one work experience but may blend in well in another.
We cannot guarantee in a positive
way what path a subsequent job will bring! Let
us take the road of our ancestors: Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rachel, and Rebecca, and live in peace, good will and
harmony with our fellow men. Lehitraot. Dr. Ursula A. Falk is a psychotherapist in private practice and the author of several books and articles. |