On maintaining a professional confidence.

Abstract

T he right to privacy is a privilege very much in the forefront of our concerns. In the past few years in particular, it has been the focus of -a gret deal of controversy from the President of the United States, who claimed that his papers and conversations were inviolable, to the high school student who sued and won when his school locker was searched without his permission. Although this is an issue which has surfaced only recently in the American public consciousness, it is a subject which Jewish thought and literature have dealt with extensively over centuries. That which is sought is the proper balance between the rights of a particular individual and the rights of civilized society, which may at times be diametrically opposed. In the present study, we will explore the halachic parameters directing the actions of the person who, by virture of his professional activities, is caught in the middle between these conflicting demands. I