You can warn someone about a whole group and it is not lashon hara [slander]. As the Hafetz Haim himself brings from the Gemara that R. Yehuda HaNasi warned his son: "Stay away from people from the town of Shekenziv because they are לצנים [jokers] and draw in others into their joking."
The reason for this is that there is such a thing as group characteristics.That is not stereotyping. It s simple Game Theory.
The odd thing about this however is that the Hafetz Haim in another place brings that to speak about a whole group, you have to know that every single individual in that group shares those character traits.
We also see in the Hafetz Haim that he brings from Nida pg 61 that even though one can not accept Lashon Hara still he must be wary that it might be true.
So it makes little sense to me that the warning of the Gra is ignored. Especially nowadays when it has become clear [at least in Israel] that he was 100% correct for signing the letter of excommunication.
[That is to say there is such a thing as group dynamics. You can say a group of birds is flying north even if there might be individual birds that are flying sometimes north west and sometimes north east.]
The reason for this is that there is such a thing as group characteristics.That is not stereotyping. It s simple Game Theory.
The odd thing about this however is that the Hafetz Haim in another place brings that to speak about a whole group, you have to know that every single individual in that group shares those character traits.
We also see in the Hafetz Haim that he brings from Nida pg 61 that even though one can not accept Lashon Hara still he must be wary that it might be true.
So it makes little sense to me that the warning of the Gra is ignored. Especially nowadays when it has become clear [at least in Israel] that he was 100% correct for signing the letter of excommunication.
[That is to say there is such a thing as group dynamics. You can say a group of birds is flying north even if there might be individual birds that are flying sometimes north west and sometimes north east.]
