President Joe Biden desecrated a celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, on Friday by repeating a proven lie known as the “fine people hoax,” falsely accusing his predecessor, Donald Trump, of praising neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in August 2017.
In fact, as Breitbart News and others have demonstrated repeatedly, Trump said the neo-Nazis should be “condemned totally.”
Biden made his remarks in front of a Jewish audience at what was billed as the first-ever White House gathering for Rosh Hashanah.
The Jewish New Year is traditionally a time of repentance for past sins, especially the sin of lashing hara, known as “evil speech.”
In repeating the hoax, however, Biden committed that very sin — defined as “the lowest of the low” by the Jewish Virtual Library:
The gravest of these sins of tale-bearing is lashon ha-ra (literally, “the evil tongue”), which involves discrediting a person or saying negative things about a person, even if those negative things are true. Some sources indicate that lashon ha-ra is equal in seriousness to murder, idol worship, and incest and adultery (the only three sins that you may not violate even to save a life).
It is forbidden to even imply or suggest negative things about a person. It is forbidden to say negative things about a person, even in jest. It is likewise considered a “shade of lashon ha-ra” to say positive things about a person in the presence of his enemies, because this will encourage his enemies to say negative things to contradict you!
One who tells disparaging things that are false is referred to as a motzi sheim ra, that is, one who spreads a bad report. This is considered the lowest of the low.
Biden also used the “fine people hoax” at a “unity summit” this month, after labeling “MAGA Republicans” a threat to the country.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.