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Embarrassing Others: Difference between revisions
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# Is a kohen who embarrasses someone prohibited from ascending the duchen to say Birchat Kohanim just like a Kohen who has murdered someone is? | # Is a kohen who embarrasses someone prohibited from ascending the duchen to say Birchat Kohanim just like a Kohen who has murdered someone is? | ||
# Are you allowed to give permission to someone to embarrass you or not just like you are not allowed to give someone permission to kill you? | # Are you allowed to give permission to someone to embarrass you or not just like you are not allowed to give someone permission to kill you? | ||
= = Types of Embarrassment = = | |||
The Mishna and Gemara Bava Metzia provide several examples of things people can say that violate the prohibition of hurting others with speech. From these examples we can discern different types of ways in which a person can be hurt. | |||
The Mishna provides these examples: <ref>Bava Metzia 58 </ref> | |||
#One may not say to a sinner who repented “remember your prior deeds.” | |||
#One may not say to a convert's son “remember your ancestors' deeds.” | |||
The Gemara provides the following additional examples:<ref>Bava Metzia 58 </ref> | |||
#He may not say to a convert who wants to learn “your mouth ate forbidden foods. Will it learn Torah, which was given from God?” | |||
#One may not tell one suffering afflictions that he is receiving those afflictions due to prior sins. | |||
In addition the Gemara relates three stories based on Tanach in which characters experience embarrassment:<ref>Bava Metzia 58a - 59a</ref> | |||
# Iyov's friends spoke to him - "Mi Hu Naki Ovad". They told him that his afflictions were caused by is prior sin. | |||
# Tamar, had she revealed that Yehuda was the one who impregnated her, would have embarrassed him. | |||
# David’s peers used him as an example of an adulterer in their learning. | |||
There are many ways embarrassment takes place. Calling a person by a derogatory nickname, for instance, is forbidden in Halacha. You may not ask an uneducated person for an opinion on a scholarly matter that would draw attention to his lack of knowledge or education. You may not refer someone to another person for assistance when you know the other person cannot help. These are all also examples of embarrassment that would be forbidden in Halacha.<ref>Gemara Bava Metziah 58b</ref>. | |||
On the secular point of view, embarrassment is split up into five parts. Violation of Privacy, when private places on the body are exposed, an invasion of private information, or, an invasion of personal space. Lack of knowledge or lack of skill, when failure to showcase knowledge is displayed. Criticism, when the subject is made the center of attention for a negative reason. Awkward acts, when situations such as inappropriate conversations, clumsiness, and ungraceful actions take place in a social setting, triggering embarrassment. Appropriate image and environment, when personal possessions, clothing, and overall body image is found by the subject to be far less than what is actually expected by themselves and by society. <ref>Withers, Lesley; Sherblom, John. "Embarrassment: The Communication of an Awkward Actor Anticipating a Negative Evaluation". Human Communication 11 (2): 237–254.</ref> | |||
Of these five parts, the examples from the Tanach, Mishna, and Gemara all either fall into one of these categories, or several of these categories. | |||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
<references/> | <references/> | ||
