Jewish Beliefs about Peace and Conflict » Jewish Attitudes to Bullying

Why bullying matters to Jews

In Bullying and Cyberbullying you learned what bullying is, the main types and the effects on the person bullied. This lesson asks a different question: what does Judaism teach about it, and why? Jews do not have one rule called "no bullying". Instead, bullying is wrong because of several Jewish teachings that point the same way.

Key terms:

• Lashon hara: "evil tongue", the Hebrew name for harmful speech about another person, even when what is said is true. It includes gossip and spreading rumours.
• Talmud (recap from Creation, Humanity and Tikkun Olam): the large collection of Jewish teaching and discussion that explains how to live by the Torah.

Do not stand idly by

Leviticus 19:16 says, "Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbour." Its first meaning is that you must help when someone's life is in danger. Jews also apply it to bullying. Someone who watches a person being hurt and says nothing is not innocent. As in Bullying and Cyberbullying, a bystander is someone who sees bullying happen. For Jews, the bystander has a duty to act.

Acting does not have to mean a fight. It can mean speaking up, sitting with the person who is being left out, or telling a trusted adult or the rabbi. Leviticus 19:17 also tells people to speak honestly to a neighbour who is doing wrong, instead of hating them in secret. Many Jews take this to include telling a bully, calmly, that what they are doing must stop.

Harmful speech and public shaming

Judaism takes words very seriously. Lashon hara is forbidden, and the ban is wider than lies. Even true things said to hurt someone, or passed on for the fun of gossip, count as harmful speech. This matches verbal and social bullying: name-calling, rumours, mocking and leaving people out.

The Talmud also teaches that shaming someone in public is a very serious wrong. It compares making a person's face turn pale with embarrassment to shedding blood. The point is that humiliation does real harm to a person, even when nobody touches them.

Together these teachings give a clear message for the modern world: words can wound as deeply as fists.

Hillel and the memory of persecution

The Talmud tells of a man who asked the sage Hillel to teach him the whole Torah while he stood on one foot. Hillel is said to have replied, "What is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Now go and learn." Jews often use this to test their own actions. Nobody wants to be mocked, excluded or threatened, so nobody should do it to someone else.

Jews also draw on their own history. They have been a persecuted minority in many times and places, and the Holocaust is the most terrible example. This memory is a reason to protect people who are different. The Torah says, "Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:19). A people who know what it is to be picked on are taught to stand beside those who are picked on now. Prejudice-based bullying, which you met in the shared lesson, is therefore especially serious.

A peaceful society, inclusion and solutions

Jews see bullying as a threat to a peaceful society. If members of a community cannot feel safe, they cannot live in shalom (peace) with each other, as in Shalom: Peace, Pacifism and Passive Resistance in Judaism. Working towards a peaceful society matters for Jews because the Torah's aim is a world where people can live together well and treat one another with respect.

Jewish teachings on inclusion lead to these ideas for solutions:

• Include the outsider. Welcome the new, lonely or different person into the group, since everyone is made in the image of the Almighty.
• Speak up and support. Do not be a silent bystander. Help the person being bullied and tell someone who can act, such as a parent, a trusted adult or a rabbi.
• Watch your words. Refuse to pass on gossip or join in mocking.
• Teach it. Families, youth groups and synagogue classes can teach children these values early.
• Teshuvah. As in Peacemaking, Forgiveness and Restorative Justice in Judaism, a bully can admit the wrong, apologise and change, and the community can welcome them back.

Cyberbullying

These teachings were given long before the internet, but Jews apply them to cyberbullying. A cruel message, rumour or humiliating photo posted online is lashon hara and public shaming, and it spreads further and faster than a spoken word. Because messages can be shared and kept, the harm is harder to undo. Not forwarding it, not "liking" it, and reporting it are ways of not standing idly by. As the shared lesson explained, the person bullied should also keep evidence and tell someone they trust.

Exam-style question

(a) Identify three types of bullying. [3 marks]

(b) Choose one religion. Outline two Jewish teachings about bullying. [4 marks]

(c) Choose one religion. Explain why bullying is wrong in this religion. [6 marks]

(d) 'Religious teachings are the best way to stop bullying.' Evaluate this statement, showing you have considered different points of view. In your answer you should refer to at least one religion. [12 marks]