Poor boundaries can lead to bad decisions, even when you mean well. Our Gemara references the fast day Tzom Gedaliah, which has to do with events described in Yirmiyahu 41.  Gedaliah ben Achikam, the persian government’s appointed leader of the remaining Jewish settlement in Israel, was assassinated by Yishmael ben Netanya in a cruel double cross and massacre of innocent people.

The Gemara Niddah (61a) notes that the verse implies guilt on Gedaliah’s part.  The reason for this is that he was naive and did not believe the warnings he was given by others who knew of the plot.  Even though one is not allowed to believe l’shon hara, the Gemara there says that you may take steps to protect yourself in case the intelligence gathering and threats are credible.

Mesilas Yesharim uses Gedaliah’s error as a case example of false piety and overly cautious behavior when it is necessary to take bold action.  He also gives as another example, the overly timid piety of Zecharia ben Avkulos described in Gittin (56a), in the famous pre-churban story of Kamtza and bar Kamtza.

I believe it is not a coincidence that both examples came in relation to Churban Beis Hamikdash stories, (though one was First Temple, and the other Second Temple.)  When the rabbinic leadership is imbalanced in their perceptions of piety and enactment, and practical application of values.  That itself is what interferes with redemption.  The rabbis astutely observed (Koheles Rabbah 7:16) that if a person is merciful when he should be cruel, he will end up being cruel when he is supposed to be merciful.  As we saw that King Shaul felt bad for the Amalekites, which we can imagine in a modern sense is like feeling bad for Nazis, and then ended up massacaring the Priestly City of Nov for “insurrection”, where he should have shown clemency.  (Say what you want about January 6, the Priests in Shaul’s time were definitely innocent and it wasn’t a conspiracy theory!) When you have poor boundaries, they tend to get fouled up even when you have good intentions.

This reminds me of how years ago (hopefully no longer), the prohibition of l’shon hara and believing potentially libelous accusations paralyzed Batei Din, Mosdos and Rabbanim from acting upon reasonable suspicions of sexual misconduct on the part of teachers or rabbis.  It also paralyzed them from sharing information with other mosdos and institutions.  

A present day example that needs more focus is covering up important information regarding Shidduchim.  I wrote extensively about this in Psychology of the Daf Kesuvos 12.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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