Rebuke & The Limits of Live & Let Live

(16) Do not deal basely with your countrymen. Do not profit by the blood of your fellow: I am the LORD. (17) You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart. Rebuke your kinsman but incur no guilt because of him. (18) You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself: I am the LORD.

Rabbi Yossi bar Hanina said: "Rebuke leads to love, as it says 'Rebuke a wise person and he will love you.'" That is the opinion of Rabbi Yossi bar Hanina who said: "All love that does not include rebuke is not love." Reish Lakish said: "Rebuke leads to peace, [as it says] 'Avraham rebuked Avimelech.'" That is his opinionwho said: "All love that does not include rebuke is not love."

Anyone who had the capability to protest the members of his household and did not protest, he himself is apprehended for the members of his household. [If he is in a position to protest] the people of his town, he is apprehended for the people of his town. The whole world, he is apprehended for the whole world.

Rabbi Zeira said to Rabbi Simon: Let the Master reprimand the members of the house of the Exilarch. [Rabbi Simon] said to him: They will not accept reprimand from me. [Rabbi Zeira] said to him: Let my master reprimand them even if they do not accept it.

Rather, the accepted principle is: Leave the Jews alone; it is better that they be unwitting sinners and not be intentional sinners. [There were those who understood that] this principle applies only to rabbinic prohibitions but not to Torah prohibitions. However, this is not so; it is no different whether the prohibition is by Torah law or whether it is by rabbinic law, we do not say anything to them.

And Rabbi Ile’a said in the name of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon: Just as it is a mitzva for a person to say that which will be heeded, so is it a mitzva for a person not to say that which will not be heeded. Rabbi Abba says: It is obligatory [for him to refrain from speaking], as it is stated: “Do not reprove a scorner lest he hate you; reprove a wise man and he will love you” (Proverbs 9:8).

The tanna taught a baraita before Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak: Anyone who humiliates another in public, it is as though he were spilling blood. [Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak] said to him: You have spoken well, as we see that after the humiliated person blushes, the red leaves his face and pallor comes in its place.

The Sages taught: The verse states: “But in righteousness shall you judge your colleague” (Leviticus 19:15), from which it is derived: [The court must ensure] that there will not be a situation where one litigant is sitting and one litigant is standing, or a situation where one litigant says everything that he needs to say to present his case and one litigant, the judge says to him: Curtail your statement. Alternatively, it is derived from the verse: “But in righteousness shall you judge your colleague,” that you should judge another favorably, [and seek to find justification for his actions, even if when interpreted differently his actions could be judged unfavorably.] Rav Yosef teaches that from the verse: “But in righteousness shall you judge your colleague [amitekha],” it is derived: With regard to one who is with you [im she’itekha] in observance of Torah and in fulfillment of mitzvot, try to judge him favorably.

(8) The house of Shammai say, one should not sell him [a Jew] a plowing cow during the Sabbatical year. The house of Hillel allow it, since he could slaughter it. One may sell him cows even during planting time, and one may lend him his Se'ah measure even though one knows that he has a granary, and make change for him even though one knows he has laborers. And all of these [actions], if [he has expressed] explicit [intent], are forbidden.