Halakhah do Przysłów 26:31

And there are [certain] statements which are milder nuances¹²Literally: dust of lashon hara (slander). of slander. For example, if someone says: "Let's not talk about so and so; I do not want to tell what happened and what transpired," or words to that effect. Likewise, if you tell of someone's virtues in the presence of his enemies, this constitutes a milder nuance of slander, for this will prompt [his enemies] to tell derogatory things about him. Concerning this King Solomon said,¹³Proverbs 27:14. "He that praises his friend with a loud voice when rising early in the morning,¹⁴This phrase alludes to the eagerness with which he sings his friends praises, day after day. (Metsudas David) it will be counted as a curse to him," for [proclaiming] his virtues will cause him harm. Also when a person slanders in a jesting or jocular manner, as if he were not speaking out of hatred, [he is guilty of a milder form of slander]. King Solomon [referred to this] when he said in his wisdom,¹⁵Proverbs 26:18,19. "As a man who pretends to play, and shoots firebrands, arrows, and death [so is this man who deceives his neighbor] and says 'Look, I'm only joking." Equally [guilty] is a person who slanders with slyness, by pretending to speak innocently, [as if he were] unaware that [what he says] is slander, and when he is taken to task for it he says, "I did not know that this was slander" or "so and so [actually] did these things."

And we will add other things on the [level] of the simple meaning, and say that it is from this root that God commanded us to always sacrifice from things about which the heart of man covets, like meat and wine and bread, so that the heart be more aroused with this matter. And it [likewise] obligated the poor person to bring from his little [supply] of flour that his eyes and heart are upon all of the day. And there is another arousal of the heart with animal sacrifices from the angle of similarity, as human and animal bodies are similar in all of their matters - they are only differentiated that in this one, intellect was given into it, and not into that one. And when the human body goes out of the realm of the intellect at the time of the sin, he must know that he has entered the realm of animals at that time, as this is the only thing that differentiates them. And therefore he is commanded to take a body of flesh like him and to bring it to the place chosen for the raising of the intellect and to burn it there, and to forget its memory - it shall be completely [incinerated], 'it shall not be remembered and it shall not be thought of,' corresponding to his body - in order to form a strong image in his heart that any matter of a body without intellect is lost and completely null. And he should [thus] rejoice in his portion of an intelligent soul with which God has graced him, [and] which exists forever. And the body that cooperates with it will also exist in the revival [of the dead] on its account, in its following its counsel, meaning to say in its guarding itself from sin. And in his fixing this image in his soul, he will be very careful about sin. And the Torah promises that through this great act and through the obedience of its doer that he regret his sin from his heart and from his soul, [that] his accidental sin will be atoned. But this similarity will not suffice to atone for volitional sins, as one who sins volitionally will not be chastised by similarities and words, but only by "the rod for the back of fools" (Proverbs 26:3).