But I am.
And so is everybody else in the world.
Judaism forbids telling bad things about other people, even if those things are completely true. It's not just slander that's evil, even reporting the bad news about others is evil. "So and so cheated on his wife and she caught him," "so and so may be going to jail for tax evasion". Sorry, folks, you can't tell that to anybody. It's what we call Lashon Hora, evil speak.
But this makes no sense! If it's a fact, why should I not be able to say it? I'm not lying, I'm not besmirching someone's reputation!
Ah, but I am. (There's that non-schizophrenia again).
Each human being has two personalities. We have a higher self and a lower self. The higher self is called "the good inclination", while the lower self is called "the evil inclination". They are in constant battle. Our lower self is where bad character traits reside, such as greed, jealousy, hatred, lust and ego. The higher self is where proper judgment and spirituality reside.
For example, the lower self may say, "why should I helped my competition in business?". That is coming from a place of greed and jealousy. The higher self says, "my competitor also has a right to earn a living, and there is enough good to go around." The lower self responds to immediate desires of all kinds, while the higher self is able to take a step back and say "this is the moral path, this is the way of godliness."
There is no human being without a higher self. There are many human beings who never listened to it. And those human beings have learned to quiet the pangs of conscience, even though they are aware of the higher path.
Most of us, however, Bernie included, sometimes listen to this one and sometimes listen to that one. King Herod was arguably an evil man, who committed lots of bloodshed. Yet it was he who built the glorious Temple in Jerusalem, a building which found favor in God's eyes for He blessed its construction with fair weather and with the divine presence. King Herod's paranoid murders were his lower self. The temple was his higher self.
That's why evil talk, even if completely true, is forbidden. Because it is not really completely true. It paints the person with the brush of their lower self. When I hear that someone cheated on their taxes, my natural reaction is to say that they are a bad person. I judge the entire person based on the bad news.
And that is what is false and evil. They are a good person who did a bad deed. Or many bad deeds. I should beware of them, not invest with them, send them to jail for their deeds if they are criminal. But I should never say that they are a bad person. They are a good person that chose to act in a bad way. Therefore, they must suffer the consequences.
And the postscript on this is that Bernie is still very much alive. He may yet choose to follow his higher self. Even though he will be in prison, they can choose to dedicate himself to helping those he hurt regain their losses. I hope he will, because I believe that Bernie is a good man.
