SubscribeThe “tell-all” book and lashon hara
Unless you’ve been living under a rock — which given the current economic climate might not be as far-fetched as it seems — you’ve heard about The Yankee Years, the new book by Joe Torre and Sports Illustrated baseball writer Tom Verducci, published by Doubleday.
Critics, including the New York Yankees, say it’s a tell-all unworthy of their former manager; Torre maintains he spoke the truth when writing negatively about his relationships with some members of the team and front office personnel.
Lashon hara is the halachic prohibition from engaging in gossip, an area into which many of these books fall. I am still waiting for my copy to arrive, but based on what I’ve read and heard, this was a great marketing ploy by the publisher, who “leaked” the news and excerpts in the Sunday slow-news-days before the Super Bowl. It was on the tongues of just about all the sports broadcasters and pundits for quite awhile.
I asked Rabbi Douglas Sagal of Temple Emanu-El in Westfield, NJ for his thoughts on whether good Jewish fans should imbibe.
He also had not read the book, but said
Judaism has a pretty tough stance on lashon hara. Even repeating or disseminating truthful information about another person, if the intent is to harm; is prohibited, unless one is looking to prevent future harm to another.
I am not sure where “tell all” books fall on this scale. In general, I would consider them a form of lashon hara, and therefore should be prohibited.
So if Torre meant harm to those people he wrote about in uncomplimentary terms, then we shouldn’t read. But if that wasn’t his intention, then it’s okay.
Personally, I don’t think he meant to do that, again based on what I’ve heard and read. So it boils down to interpretation, and who can really read another person’s heart and mind? Maybe we should get the Baseball Talmudist in on this.
Here’s the New York Times review of the book and an excerpt from Sports Illustrated.
frankly, if everyone adhered to the strict standard of lashon hara, there would be no exposes about politicians or really, no good historical writing. For example, if someone covering Watergate didn’t like Nixon and wanted to get him out of office and reported truthfully on what he did, this apparently would be lashon hara.