SEFER CHOFETZ CHAIM — Hilchos Lashon Hara 10:17
Avromi had a very annoying practice, one that his bunkmates wished he would stop. After swimming or showering, he would drape his soaking wet towel over the front door of the bunkhouse. Avromi’s counselor and fellow bunkmates did not appreciate getting wet every time they went in or out of the bunk. They would ask him to drape the towel over the porch railing or on the clothesline behind the bunkhouse, but Avromi would respond, “The door is the most convenient place and the wind that’s created when the door is opened and closed helps the towel to dry faster.”
One day when Avromi was not present, Yossi, a fellow bunkmate, removed the towel from the door and draped it neatly over the porch railing. A few minutes later, Avromi returned to the bunk. Seeing the towel on the railing, he flew into a rage. “Who moved my towel without my permission?” he demanded of his bunkmate Usher.
Yossi did nothing wrong by moving the towel. Nevertheless, Avromi will be angry at him if he finds out that he is the one who moved it.
If Avromi will not be able to determine which of his bunkmates moved the towel, then Usher would be allowed to say that he was not the one. This is the halachah; however, it would be proper for Usher to go lifnim mishuras hadin, beyond the letter of the law, and accept the blame for what happened. This is because if Usher denies involvement, there is a reasonable possibility that Avromi will eventually identify Yossi as the culprit. This may lead to an argument or Yossi’s embarrassment. We learn this, says the Chofetz Chaim, from a number of incidents in the Gemara. In one incident, Rabban Gamliel [the Nasi] asked that seven judges come to his court for an important meeting. When eight judges arrived at the meeting, Rabban Gamliel announced that whoever was not invited should leave. Shmuel HaKattan rose and said, “I am the one who came without permission.” In fact, Shmuel had been one of those summoned, but he wanted to spare the uninvited individual embarrassment (Sanhedrin 11a).
Now, let us change the scenario:
As Yossi enters the bunkhouse, he becomes entangled in the wet towel and decides that he has had enough. He removes the towel from the door and, in order to teach Avromi a lesson, throws the towel into the mud in front of the bunkhouse.
Most of the bunk has gone hiking. Avromi, Yossi and Usher are the only ones who have remained behind. When Avromi finds the towel in the mud, he immediately realizes that either Yossi or Usher is the culprit. He confronts Usher, “Are you the one who did this?”
If Usher responds, “No,” Avromi will know that Yossi is the culprit. Is he allowed to respond “No”?
There is no doubt that Yossi had no right to throw the towel into the mud. Since his action is clearly wrong, Usher has every right to insist that he would never have done such a thing, even though his insistence automatically implicates Yossi.
However, if, as in the first scenario, Yossi had placed the towel neatly on the porch railing, it is questionable whether or not Usher is allowed to deny having done it when this will automatically identify Yossi as the guilty one.
IN A NUTSHELL
When one is wrongly suspected of a misdeed that someone else has committed, he should study the halachah and think the matter through carefully before deciding how to respond.
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