There is tremendous power in learning from the Sefer Chofetz Chaim each day. In this crucial time, we’re going to help encourage that effort with a few halachos a day using Sefaria’s translation (https://www.sefaria.org/Chafetz_Chaim).
-Part One, The Prohibition Against Lashon Hara, Principle 2, Seif 5
It seems to me that if the recounting in the presence of three were before G–d- fearing men, who guard themselves against the prohibitions of lashon hara, then, as a matter of course, this report is not bound to be heard; and if so, it is forbidden by Torah law to repeat it afterwards to another. And even if only one of the three were G–d-fearing, guarding himself against the issur of lashon hara, the din remains the same, for there are no longer three [potential] “publicizers.” And it may be that this is the din if one of the three were a relative or a close friend of the object of the slander. The same rationale applies here. For he certainly will not go and reveal to all the taint of his relative or his close friend, so that there are not three [potential publicizers] who were present.
-Part One, The Prohibition Against Lashon Hara, Principle 2, Seif 6
It also seems to me that only in that city in which the report was heard in the presence of three is it permitted to reveal it on the basis of “Your friend has a friend, etc.,” but not in a different city, even if there were communication [lit., “caravans”] between the two. [See Be’er Mayim Chayim.]
