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How could Yosef HaTzaddik speak lashon hara about his brothers? The shiur resolves this by distinguishing objective reporting to help someone (permitted) from reporting that could have been avoided through genuine friendship. Yosef's mistake was not the report itself—which had no spin and was intended solely to help—but failing to befriend his brothers in a way that would have let him solve their problems directly, without needing to tell Yaakov.
The shiur opens with a fundamental question: How could Yosef HaTzaddik, the very paradigm of righteousness, be associated with lashon hara when Chazal teach that lashon hara is worse than the three cardinal sins—gilui arayos, avodah zarah, and shefichas damim—combined? The Baal HaTurim notes that the word "dibros" (the reports Yosef brought) has the numerical value of 446, equal to "maves" (death), because lashon hara kills three people: the speaker, the listener, and the subject. Yet the very next pasuk describes Yosef as "na'ar," befriending the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. How can these contradictory descriptions coexist in the same verse? Rabbi Zweig begins by citing the Sifsei Kohen, who is troubled by Rashi (רש"י)'s statement that Yosef reported "whatever wrong he saw." The Sifsei Kohen points out that everywhere else the Torah (תורה) uses the term "dibros," it employs the verb "motzi" (brought out, made up). Here, however, it says "vayavei" (he brought), not "vayotzi." This indicates that Yosef did not fabricate or exaggerate—he only reported what he actually witnessed. This distinction is crucial: motzi shem ra (slander through fabrication) is among the gravest sins, with no possibility of mechilah (forgiveness). The pshat must be that Yosef did not invent stories.
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Bereishis 37:2 (Parshas Vayeishev)
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