When describing the animals that entered Noah's ark, the Torah refers to the ritually impure animals as "beasts that are not pure." The Sages noted in Pesachim that the Torah speaks in a refined manner, and therefore avoided calling them "impure" directly.
Yet under further examination, this insight does not seem to hold water. When the Torah discusses which animals may not be eaten (in parashot Shemini and Re'eih), the Torah does not use euphemisms. Instead, the Torah refers to these animals as "tema’im" -- impure beasts. Why does the Torah not use a more refined language when establishing the dietary laws?
Yossi the Scholar and Yossi the Boor
There was once a town where two wealthy men, both named Yossi, lived. One Yossi was a wise and learned man, while the second was an ignoramus. This second Yossi was commonly referred to as 'Yossi the boor' to distinguish him from the scholarly Yossi.
One day a visitor came to the door of Yossi the scholar. It turned out, however, that he was looking for the other Yossi. The butler who greeted him at the door, responded, "Oh, you want the house of 'Yossi the boor.' He lives two streets over."
His boss, who overheard the butler, was unhappy hearing him speak like this. "You should not refer to someone as a boor. Other people may call him 'Yossi the boor' to distinguish him from me. But in my house, this kind of talk is not acceptable. I don't want people to think I look down on my neighbors."
Soon after this, a marriage broker came to the scholar and proposed a match between his daughter and the son of Yossi the boor. The scholar was appalled that the shadchan should even suggest such a match. "My daughter, married to the son of Yossi the boor?!” he cried out. “Never! Not while I am alive!"
After the shadchan left, the butler approached his boss. "I don't understand. Why is it, when I called him 'Yossi the boor,' you reprimanded me; but now you used that very phrase?"
The scholar responded, "Don't you see the difference? If someone asks you information where someone lives, he is not asking you to give an account of his character. All you need to do is provide his address. Anything more, if it is uncomplimentary, is lashon hara -- uncalled for gossip.
"But when I received a proposal for my daughter's marriage, I needed to be blunt and straightforward in explaining why I object to such a match. It was my duty as the father to explain to the matchmaker that I will not have my daughter marry the son of an ignoramus."
Adapted from The Maggid and his Parables, pp. 125-127.
