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By Rabbi Carl M. Perkins:

Reproving Your Neighbor
Parashat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim (May 1, 2004)
You shall not hate your kinsman in your heart.
Reprove your neighbor, and incur no guilt because of him.
You shall not take vengeance
or bear a grudge against your countrymen.
Love your fellow as yourself: I am the LORD.
(Leviticus 19:17-18)
Why does it say incur no guilt because of him?
You shall not shame him by reproving him in public. For it was taught
that one who shames another person (ha-malbin p'nei havero,
literally: one who whitens the face of another) is as if he sheds
his blood.
(Rashi; Bava Metzia 58b)
Rabbi Haninah said: Jerusalem was destroyed only because
people failed to reprove one another, as it is said: Her leaders
were like stags that found no pasture (Lam.1:6) meaning that
just like stags, who stand with the head of one at the side of the
other's tail, so too did the Jews of that generation hide their
faces in the earth and did not reprove each other.
(Shabbat 119b)
One who reprimands his fellow ... must do so privately.
And he should speak to him gently and with mild language, and let
him know that he is only speaking to him for his own good, to bring
him to the life of the world to come. If he accepts (the reprimand),
all is well; if not, he should reprimand him a second and third
time. And in fact a person is always obligated to reprimand him
until the sinner drives him away and says to him, I am not going
to listen.
(Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, Laws of Character Traits 6:7)
You shall not hate your kinsman in your heart
The verse here is saying the following: Do not hate your brother
in your heart when he does something to you against your will, but
instead you are to reprove him, saying, 'Why did you do this to
me?' and you will not bear sin because of him by covering up your
hatred of him in your heart and not telling him, for when you will
reprove him, he will justify himself before you [so that you will
have no cause to hate him] or he will regret his action and admit
his sin, and you will forgive him.
(Nachmanides)
Reprove your neighbor
Literally, it says:
Reprove, you shall surely reprove
Rabbi Ila said in the
name of Rabbi Elazar the son of Rabbi Shimon: From this we derive
that just as it is a mitzvah to speak when our words will be heeded,
so it is a mitzvah not to speak when our words will
not be heeded. Rabbi Abba said: in such a case it is an obligation
not to speak, as it is said: Do not reprove a scoffer, for he
will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
(Proverbs 9:8)
When you want to reprimand someone, do not do so by
calling them a scoffer! If you do, he will hate you -- Instead,
reprove a wise person -- by saying: you are so wise, a person
of your quality should not do thus-and-such... Then, the person
will love you -- and listen to your words and accept your guidance.
(Shnei Luhot Ha-Brit, Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz, 16th-17th c.,
Prague and Tzefat)
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