GEN949 The Chaffetz Chayyim, Judaism’s foremost scholar on the laws of speech, rules that when a person ask you what another has said about him, and the statement was derogatory, then, “if one can formulate a reply which will not repeat the bad things which were said and will also not be an outright lie, one should reply in this way.  However, if one knows that one’s friend will not accept such a reply, then it is permitted to tell a complete lie, because of peace” Laws of Rechilut 1:8.   The Chaffetz Chayyim’s position is based on the Talmud’s teaching that, for the sake of peace, one can modify the truth, and on Maimonides’ ruling, “[A scholar] does not alter the truth in his speech, not adding or subtracting, except in the interest of peace and the like” Mishneh Torah, “Laws of Character Development” 5:7.   In English, we have the expression “to be brutally honest.”  If being honest means that you will have to be “brutal,” then you should reconsider your words.  TELVOL1:439