LEV471 … even the historical context of traditional Jewish law did not raise the question of special privacy requirements for professionals, in our day we may apply its concern for the general welfare to protect professional – client confidentiality. So, for example, if a lawyer knows that a client has a criminal record of fraud, (this verse, "Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor") would seem to require the lawyer to warn any of the client's potential business partners of the extra risks involved in doing business with him or her. Because society needs legal services, though, and because people will seek the aid of an attorney only if they can be assured of confidentiality, we may interpret Jewish law as permitting – – or even insisting--that the lawyer keep quiet about the client's past. That clearly impinges on the potential partners' welfare, for they may be taking on a larger level of risk than they realize or want to; but the need of the community for legal help and for confidentiality in attaining that help may outweigh the partners' individual or collective well-being. In interpreting Jewish law in this way, I am narrowing the domain of (this verse) to exclude professionals who are keeping confidences made known to them in their professional roles. (Cohen (1984), 224-227, takes this position and I agree with it). On the other hand, if there is no practical need to reveal negative facts about a person, disclosing them is itself a sin. (Continued at [[NUM168]] Numbers 15:32 man DORFFLOV 65).

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LEV477 Defamatory speech is an important thing to avoid as much as possible, but there are some very clear exceptions to the prohibition. One exception occurs when failure to defame the person will result in harm to someone else. If someone routinely defrauds customers, for example, you are duty-bound to warn potential victims and to inform the authorities, however negative your report may be. In fact, as a general rule, when failure to disclose a financial or physical abuse to the proper authorities will result in continued illegal activities, the victim and anyone who notices the wrongdoing are obliged to report such activities. Even though that will inevitably defame the abuser, such action is not only permissible but mandatory when it is done in an effort to prevent harm to oneself or someone else.

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LEV615 Thus, to achieve atonement, every Jew must focus on the needs of the sinning Jew, or the Jew who has no Torah learning and no observance. (Rema on Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 664:7; Shelah commentary on Sukkah, Perek Ner, Mitzvah 7). This sensitivity to sinners was also taught by Beruriah, the wife of Rabbi Meir. She castigated her husband for praying that sinners should die, convincing him that he was in error and that Judaism only advocates the disappearance of sin and/or the habitual sinners. Beruriah then urged her husband to pray that these men would repent (Berachot 10a). It is important to note that when rebuking the sinner for his or her evil ways, a Jew must possess sensitivity. There is a general commandment in the Torah to admonish Jewish sinners in order to induce them to repent [this verse]. Why is it that the commandment not to hate someone and the commitment to rebuke are placed in the very same verse? This teaches that even when one rebukes a person who is sinning, the rebuke may never be with even the smallest portion of hate.

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LEV637 Some refrain from lending their possessions because of some slight antipathy they harbor against the borrower. This is the worst of all the vices mentioned above. Here, one transgresses the prohibition [this verse]: "You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the children of your people." We have already previously dealt at length with this topic (Part One, Chap. 4, q.v.). One should rather pay regard to himself, recalling how many times he provoked the Holy One, blessed be He, both in word and by deed. Nevertheless the Holy One, blessed be He, does not take revenge or bear any grudge against him in any of his dealings. One should, therefore, act in the same way towards his neighbor. We may assert that this is the intent of [this] verse: "You shall not take vengeance… but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am God." You shall extend towards your neighbor the virtues I extend towards you and towards the world as a whole, since I do not bear any hatred, as stated (Jeremiah 3:12): "For I am merciful, says God, I will not bear a grudge forever."

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LEV631 It is forbidden to be obdurate and not allow oneself to be appeased. On the contrary, one should be easily pacified and difficult to anger. Moreover, when asked by an offender for forgiveness, one should forgive with a sincere mind and a willing spirit. Even if one had been much vexed and grievously wronged, he is not to avenge nor bear a grudge (this verse). (From Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, "Laws of Return" 1:10).

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LEV667 It is forbidden to be obdurate and not allowing self to be appeased. On the contrary, one should be easily pacified and difficult to anger. Moreover, when asked by an offender for forgiveness, when should forgive with a sincere mind and a willing spirit. Even if one had been much vexed and grievously wrong, he is not to avenge nor bear a grudge (this verse).

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LEV685 See [[LEV478]] Leviticus 19:16 idly DORFFLOV 234-5

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LEV835 The exact opposite of loving, marital companionship is adultery. Adultery is prohibited by the seventh of the captain Commandments, and adultery and incest are together treated as one of the three prohibitions that, according to the Talmud, a person is not to violate even on pain of losing one's life. (45) indeed, the Torah prescribes the death penalty for both men and women involved in adultery; (46) and if for some reason that punishment is not carried out, the Talmud maintains that a woman who committed adultery is forbidden to both her husband and her Paramore--that is, she may not continue in her marriage and she may not marry her lover.) 47) test the Jewish tradition clearly for bad adultery in the strictest of terms. Even though I know of no conservative or orthodox rabbinic ruling that is reversed this time music stance, and practice rabbis often find ways to maintain that the adultery has not been legally established so that they can pursue efforts to have a couple reconcile, especially if the couple has young children. Sometimes these efforts are successful, and they certainly should be pursued. Divorce, as I discussed below, always brings with it pains of its own for both a couple and for any children involved.

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LEV840 The most liberal Orthodox spokesman have drawn a distinction between homosexual persons who sin in the same manner as all Jews do and homosexual sexual activities, which are prohibited as an especially egregious sin, an "abomination" in the words of Leviticus (this verse). Such rabbis intend this distinction as a way to make room for homosexuals within the Orthodox community--but that welcome comes at the cost of having an integral part of the homosexual's identity and life branded as an abomination. Other Orthodox rabbis are less kind; and, in any case, Orthodox rabbis as a group, with maybe one or two exceptions, condemn homosexual sex. Conversely, as early as 1973 the Reform movement accepted into its synagogue organizations those synagogues with special outreach to gays and lesbians, and in 1990, the Reform rabbinical school, Hebrew Union College, officially adopted a policy opening admission to gays and lesbians on a par with heterosexuals. Thus while individual reform synagogues or persons may object to gay sex or to gays occupying positions of synagogue leadership, the official policy of the Reform movement does not support either of those stands, maintaining instead that homosexuals should be treated exactly as heterosexuals. It is thus only in the Conservative movement that heated discussions on this topic continue… The Conservative movement… as a movement, stands on record for full civil rights for gays and lesbians and for protection from attack and discrimination. It also officially welcomes gays and lesbians, as it welcomes all Jews, to conservative congregations. Serious disagreement continues within the movement, however, on two issues: admission of gays and lesbians to rabbinical and cantorial schools, and the advisability of creating and using some kind of commitment ceremony for gay or lesbian couples. [Note: This source was published in 2003; the Conservative movement subsequently issued further rulings on these issues - AJL].

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LEV849 The Torah includes rules that forbid conjugal relations during a woman's menstrual period (Leviticus 15:19-24, 18:19, 20:18). The Torah gives no rationale for these rules apart from saying that they are part of the way in which the people Israel become holy--that is, separated from other peoples and in league with God. While the Torah requires sexual abstinence for seven days, the Rabbis added another five, and so couples who follow these laws do not have conjugal relations for twelve days out of every menstrual month. The woman must immerse herself naked in undrawn waters, which in practice has meant either in a natural body of water or, more commonly, in a mikveh--that is, a pool specially constructed to fulfill the legal requirements.

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