Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Shmos

Secret Society

January 8, 2026

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Dayan Yehoshua Grunwald

He replied, “Who made you a man, a ruler, and a judge over us? Are you saying that you are going to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” Moshe was frightened and he thought, “Indeed, the matter has become known.”

Shmos 2:14

Rabeinu Yonah (Sha’arei Teshuvah 3:225) writes that one may not reveal a secret that someone told him, even if no prohibitions of lashon hara or rechilus are violated, because it can cause the source mental or emotional damage. The poskim codify this ruling. And the Gemara in Yoma (4b) says that it is improper to reveal, without permission, information one received privately from someone else, even if he was not explicitly instructed not to tell anyone. The Me’iri, the Orchos Chaim, and the Chafetz Chaim record both precepts.

The Tzitz Eliezer says that a doctor may not reveal a patient’s medical information, as it is considered a secret. The same would apply to other professionals, like rabanim and therapists. But contemporary poskim note that it may be permitted in cases where withholding information could cause damage to others, like in the realm of shiduchim.

It is reported in the name of R’ Yaakov Kamenetsky that it may be permissible to share secret information with a spouse, because that is the expectation of the person who revealed it. But there is no such expectation when information is shared with professionals.