Note 12 — II. OUR DUTIES. (continued 2)

The perversity of such conduct is evident, especially in the case of the departed. The prohibition, “Thou shalt not curse the deaf” (Lev. xix. 14) has been interpreted to apply to all kinds of slander about those absent or dead. Our respect for the memory of the dead is expressed in the Latin maxim, “De mortuis nil nisi bonum;” or in the Hebrew, ‏אחרי מות קדשים אמור‎12 “After their death say of them ‘saints.’ ” Similar maxims are the following: “We must not refute the lion after his death;” ‏מיתה מכפרת‎ “Death atones for all offences.”