Chafetz Chaim

Israel Meir Kagan's Chafetz Chaim is a primary source, the influential nineteenth century halakhic work by the rabbi who took his own popular name from the book's title, systematically codifying Jewish law on lashon hara, forbidden speech such as gossip and slander, drawn from Talmudic and later rabbinic sources. As the actual foundational text of this specific area of Jewish ethical and legal literature, it carries direct authority within Orthodox Jewish practice and study, where it remains a standard reference studied to this day. As one authoritative codification within a specific halakhic tradition, it represents the author's own systematization and rulings on a body of underlying Talmudic material that itself contains some genuine internal variation, and specialists in Jewish law read Kagan's codification alongside, not as a replacement for, the earlier sources he draws on.