This article is about the book. For its author, see Yisrael Meir Kagan.
For other uses, see Chofetz Chaim (disambiguation).
Chofetz Chaim: cover page 1873 ed.
The SeferChofetz Chaim (or Chafetz Chaim or Hafetz Hayim) (Hebrew: חָפֵץ חַיִּים, trans. "Pursuer of Life") is a book by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, who is also called "the Chofetz Chaim" after it. The book deals with the Jewish laws of speech.
The title of the Chafetz Chaim is taken from Psalms:
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.
— Psalm 34:12–15
The book's subject is Hilchoth Shmirath HaLashon (laws of clean speech). Kagan provides copious sources from the Torah, Talmud, and Rishonim about the severity of Jewish law on tale-mongering and gossip. Lashon hara, literally "'the evil tongue", i.e., evil speech (or loosely gossip and slander and prohibitions of defamation), 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.
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The book is divided into three parts:
The legal text is Mekor Chayim ("Source of Life").
Be'er Mayim Chayim ("Well of living water"), the footnotes and legal argument.
It is commonly printed together with the text Shemirath haLashon ("Guarding of the tongue"), an ethical treatise on the proper use of the faculty of speech.
^Jessica Hammer; Samantha Reig (29 June 2022). "From individual rights to community obligations: a Jewish approach to speech". Interactions. 29 (4): 30–34. doi:10.1145/3535271. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
The Sefer ChofetzChaim (or Chafetz Chaim or Hafetz Hayim) (Hebrew: חָפֵץ חַיִּים, trans. "Pursuer of Life") is a book by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, who...
Yeshivas ChofetzChaim (also known as the Rabbinical Seminary of America) is an Orthodox yeshiva based in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, New York, United...
The ChofetzChaim Heritage Foundation (established in 1989) is a non-profit Orthodox Jewish organization based in Monsey, New York, United States. The...
influential in Orthodox Jewish life. He was known popularly as the ChofetzChaim, after his book on lashon hara, who was also well known for the Mishna...
evil tongue: ChofetzChaim ("Desirer of Life", Psalms 34:13–14) and Shmirat HaLashon ("Guarding the tongue"), both 1873. The Chafetz Chaim lists 31 speech-related...
law) by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (Poland, 1838–1933, also known as ChofetzChaim). It is a commentary on Orach Chayim, the first section of the Shulchan...
Belarus), was established by Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan (known as the ChofetzChaim after the title of his well-known sefer) in 1869. Because of its founder's...
better known today as "Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yisrael Meir HaKohen" or the "ChofetzChaim yeshiva", as its first rosh yeshiva (dean) in the Williamsburg area...
Orthodox yeshiva in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. An affiliate of Yeshiva ChofetzChaim, it was founded in 2017 by Dovid Davidowitz and Avrohom Fertig. "Staff"...
Harris also founded Mesivta Tiferes Yisroel, another branch of the ChofetzChaim Network. Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yisrael Meir HaKohen Mesivta Tiferes Yisroel...
conversely as the father of Israel Zangwill of his playwright son. ChofetzChaim used the epithet of the man who tried to persuade him to abandon his...
Scheinberg and his wife visited Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (known as the ChofetzChaim), a leader of Ashkenazi Jewry at the time, to receive his blessing....
Europe. He was one of the closest students of Yisrael Meir Kagan (the ChofetzChaim) and a noted Talmid Chacham. In the interwar period, he served as rosh...
eating and drinking in Hilchot De'ot (e.g., halachot 1:4, 3:2, 5:1). The ChofetzChaim (Yisrael Meir Kagan) prohibits gluttony on the basis of Leviticus 19:26...
community include: Haemek Davar by Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin The ChofetzChaim Torah Temimah of Baruch ha-Levi Epstein Kerem HaTzvi, by Rabbi Tzvi...
the Raduń Yeshiva and being the son-in-law to Yisrael Meir Kagan, the ChofetzChaim. Zaks was born in Siluva. Before joining the yeshiva in Radun, he studied...
TIUNY was founded in 1974 as the first external affiliate branch of the ChofetzChaim education network by Rabbi Menachem Davidowitz and Rabbi Dovid Harris...
tapes and books on shemiras halashon (laws of proper speech) for the ChofetzChaim Heritage Foundation. Yitzchak Shmuel Halevi Berkovits is the only son...
and codes: The Mishnah Berurah of Rabbi Yisroel Meir ha-Kohen, (the "ChofetzChaim", Poland, 1838–1933) is a commentary on the "Orach Chayim" section of...
the life of the ChofetzChaim, "The Profile of an Oheiv Yisroel," Zelig Pliskin was asked to write a book explaining the ChofetzChaim's teachings. The...
include Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yisrael Meir HaKohen ("ChofetzChaim"), and Beth Medrash...
rabbi and rosh yeshiva in Europe. One of the ChofetzChaim's closest disciples and a Torah scholar. Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl (1903–1957), (Min HaMeitzar)...
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