Question:
Hello,
Thank you for your help.
My question deals with lashon hara. If someone said something that is lashon hara in a conversation, and the other person heard it, but forgot who the target of the lashon hara is (the name was said, it’s a famous person, but I’m not familiar with them or the public story that is lashon hara). Is it ok to ask the person who spoke the lashon hara to repeat the name of the person they spoke about for the purposes of me doing teshuva for listening to that lashon hara, or better to not make the person inadvertently repeat lashon hara. I do not remember the name of the person spoken lashon hara about, and I have no reason to believe anything bad about them- but I try to avoid lashon hara situations and wanted to see what follow up, if any I should do. (I did try to suggest that what they said may be lashon hara…but I tried to do it in a way as to not embarrass them…)
Thanks again
Answer:
There is no need for you to know the name of the person that was spoken about in order to do teshuva, in fact it is much better if you don’t know who the person is. If you don’t know who it is, you were not mekabel the lashon hora, no harm came to the person as a result and therefore you would not need to ask the person forgiveness. Secondly, you will be causing the speaker to be speak lashon hora again, which would be lifnei iver. Therefore, you can do teshuva just fine with the situation the way it is.
Best wishes and you should have siyata dishmaya.
