Positive Mitzvah 3-4

Positive mitzva 3: בצדק תשפוט עמיתך It is a mitzvah to judge people favorably. Certainly a righteous G-d fearing Jew, but also us in between people who sometimes make mistakes we must judge favorably. That does not mean we should lie to ourselves but the Chofetz Chaim suggests that always having an open mind with the attitude of searching out the positive in anything you see or hear will help you come up with a truthful reason of why something might sound or look wrong is really alright. However he also says there is no need to judge a wicked person favorably and a complete stranger there is no mitzva to judge favorably but it is a positive attribute to do so anyways. Often times people don’t straight out lie when speaking loshon hara but might take things out of context say half the story or quote part of a sentence. Other times the tone of voice someone reports in sometimes might cause others to take it out of context. Another thing that must be taken into account is the person you are talking about might have had a bad day or is in a lot of pain. Therefore both the speaker and listener must be very careful to be דן לכף זכות. 

Positive mitzva #4 גר ותושב וכו׳ וחי אחיך עמך There is a mitzva to support any Jew whether born Jewish or converted by giving him gifts, loans, partnerships or just finding him any job. Anything so that he will not have to go around and beg and he has a livelihood. Since that is the case one can certainly not say anything bad about a worker or a perspective shidduch just because you don’t like them and if there are some serious issues that must be dealt with it will be discussed how to do so in detail in the Halacha later on in Sefer Chofetz Chaim.

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