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<title>Chofetz Chaim</title>

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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Chofetz Chaim</span></span>

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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">This article is about the book. For its author, see <a href="Yisrael_Meir_Kagan" title="Yisrael Meir Kagan">Yisrael Meir Kagan</a>.</div>

<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">For other uses, see <a href="Chofetz_Chaim_(disambiguation)" class="mw-disambig" title="Chofetz Chaim (disambiguation)">Chofetz Chaim (disambiguation)</a>.</div>

<p>The <i><a href="Sefer_(Hebrew)" class="mw-redirect" title="Sefer (Hebrew)">Sefer</a></i> <i><b>Chofetz Chaim</b></i> (or <i><b>Chafetz Chaim</b></i> or <i><b>Hafetz Hayim</b></i>) (<a href="Hebrew_language" title="Hebrew language">Hebrew</a>: <span lang="he" dir="rtl">חָפֵץ חַיִּים</span>, <a href="Translation" title="Translation">trans.</a> "Pursuer of Life") is a book by Rabbi <a href="Yisrael_Meir_Kagan" title="Yisrael Meir Kagan">Yisrael Meir Kagan</a>, who is also called "the Chofetz Chaim" after it. The book deals with the Jewish laws of speech.

</p><p>The title of the <i>Chafetz Chaim</i> is taken from <a href="Psalms" title="Psalms">Psalms</a>:

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</style><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>Come, children, hearken to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life ("Chafetz Chaim"), who loves days to see goodness? Guard your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceitfully. Shun evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.</p></blockquote><div class="templatequotecite"><p style="display: inline; padding-left: 2.3em;">— <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et2634.htm#12">Psalm 34:12–15</a></p></div>

<p>The book's subject is <i>Hilchoth Shmirath HaLashon</i> (laws of clean speech). Kagan provides copious sources from the <a href="Torah" title="Torah">Torah</a>, <a href="Talmud" title="Talmud">Talmud</a>, and <i><a href="Rishonim" title="Rishonim">Rishonim</a></i> about the severity of <a href="Jewish_law" class="mw-redirect" title="Jewish law">Jewish law</a> on tale-mongering and gossip. <a href="Lashon_hara" title="Lashon hara">Lashon hara</a>, literally "'the evil tongue", i.e., evil speech (or loosely <a href="Gossip" title="Gossip">gossip</a> and <a href="Slander" class="mw-redirect" title="Slander">slander</a> and prohibitions of <a href="Defamation" title="Defamation">defamation</a>), is sometimes translated as "prohibitions of slander", but most commonly concerns the prohibitions of saying evil/bad/unpleasant things, whether or not they are true.

</p><p>The book is divided into three parts:

</p>

<ul><li>The legal text is <i>Mekor Chayim</i> ("Source of Life").</li>

<li><i>Be'er Mayim Chayim</i> ("Well of living water"), the footnotes and legal argument.</li>

<li>It is commonly printed together with the text <i><a href="Shmiras_halashon" class="mw-redirect" title="Shmiras halashon">Shemirath haLashon</a></i> ("Guarding of the tongue"), an <a href="Ethics" title="Ethics">ethical</a> treatise on the proper use of the faculty of speech.</li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="The_author">The author</h2></div>

<p><a href="Yisrael_Meir_Kagan" title="Yisrael Meir Kagan">Yisrael Meir Kagan</a> is commonly known as the <i>Chafetz Chaim</i>, the name of his book. He was born in <a href="Dzyatlava" title="Dzyatlava">Dzyatlava</a>, <a href="Grodno_Governorate" title="Grodno Governorate">Grodno Governorate</a>, <a href="Russian_Empire" title="Russian Empire">Russian Empire</a> (today <a href="Belarus" title="Belarus">Belarus</a>), on January 26, 1838. By 1869 his house became known as the <a href="Radu%C5%84_Yeshiva" class="mw-redirect" title="Raduń Yeshiva">Radin Yeshiva</a>. Kagan published twenty-one books. His first work, <i>Chafetz Chaim</i> (1873),<sup id="cite_ref-ProGen_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-ProGen-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> is the first attempt to organize and clarify the laws regarding <i><a href="Lashon_Hara" class="mw-redirect" title="Lashon Hara">Lashon Hara</a></i>. Other notable works include the <i>Sefer Shmirat HaLashon</i>,<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> an ethical work on the importance of guarding one's tongue and the <a href="Mishnah_Berurah" title="Mishnah Berurah">Mishnah Berurah</a> (printed between 1894 and 1907) which is a commentary on the "<a href="Orach_Chayim" title="Orach Chayim">Orach Chayim</a>", the first section of the <i><a href="Shulchan_Aruch" title="Shulchan Aruch">Shulchan Aruch</a></i>, and has been accepted among many <a href="Ashkenazi_Jews" title="Ashkenazi Jews">Ashkenazi Jews</a> as an authoritative source of <a href="Halacha" class="mw-redirect" title="Halacha">Halacha</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFJessica_HammerSamantha_Reig2022" class="citation journal cs1">Jessica Hammer; Samantha Reig (29 June 2022). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3535271">"From individual rights to community obligations: a Jewish approach to speech"</a>. <i>Interactions</i>. <b>29</b> (4): <span class="nowrap">30–</span>34. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<span class="id-lock-free" title="Freely accessible"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1145%2F3535271">10.1145/3535271</a></span><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">May 30,</span> 2024</span>.</cite></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-ProGen-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-ProGen_2-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://torah.org/learning/halashon-ccbio">"Chofetz Chaim: Ethics of Speech"</a>. 8 August 2015<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">May 30,</span> 2024</span>.</cite></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">(<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.hebrewbooks.org/14234">Online edition in Hebrew</a></span>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.broydeblog.net/uploads/8/0/4/0/80408218/codificationofjewishlaw__2012_.pdf">"The Codification of Jewish Law and an Introduction to the Jurisprudence of the Mishna Berura"</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>.</cite></span>

</li>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://cchf.global/">Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=47570&pgnum=1">Online edition in Hebrew</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://chofetzchaim.shemayisrael.com/">A Lesson A Day: A Daily Learning Program</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101216074139/http://chofetzchaim.shemayisrael.com/">Archived</a> 2010-12-16 at the <a href="Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091022001432/http://geocities.com/dafaweek/CC_Calendar.html">Chofetz Chaim Daily Calendar</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://devekut.com">Devekut.com</a> has a link ("Chofetz Chaim") with an abstract of a book by Rabbis Shimon Finkelman and Yitzhak Berkowitz about Chofetz Chaim's ideas.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://mishpacha.com/the-chofetz-chaim-comes-to-warsaw">Mishpacha Magazine article, THE CHOFETZ CHAIM COMES TO WARSAW</a></li></ul>

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