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VIEWPOINT by Rabbi Alvin Kass Truth stands at the apex of <strong>Jewish</strong> values. Indeed, the Talmud teaches that truth is the very “seal of the Holy One Blessed Be He” (Nidah 55A). <strong>The</strong> Bible also warns: “Beware of a mendacious word” (Ex. 23:7), while the prophet Samuel enjoins us to emulate “the glory of Israel who does not utter falsehood” (Samuel 15:29). <strong>The</strong> Psalmist likewise declared that only he who speaks the truth deserves to sojourn in God’s tabernacle and dwell in His holy mountain (15:2). Despite all these exhortations to adhere to truth, our tradition records many instances in which deviation from the truth occurs. Jacob the Patriarch, one of our greatest heroes whose name was changed to Israel by which title all his descendants would be known, resorted to subterfuge in order to secure his father’s blessing. Although Shammai said that a bride should be described exactly as she is, Hillel, whose views constitute the accepted approach, asserted that every bride is to be told that she is beautiful and lovely even if she is terribly homely. <strong>The</strong> Midrash reveals to us that even God resorted to prevarication on occasion. Thus, when the Almighty told Sarah that she would have a child, the Bible reports that “Sarah laughed within herself, saying…my master is old” (Gen. XVIII:12). However, when God shared this conversation with Abraham, He quoted Sarah as saying “and I am old” (ibid, 13), thereby hiding from Abraham the fact that she had called him “an old man.” How do you reconcile Judaism’s high regard for truth with the deliberate fabrications by some of our most eminent personalities, not to mention God Himself? Part of the problem has to do with the nature of truth. <strong>The</strong> most common definition of truth is conformity with reality, with things as they are, with the facts of existence in this vast unending universe of which man is a part. Truth is the correct appraisal and understandings of all that the brain can encompass as well as the infinity of ideas, relations and conditions that are beyond its comprehension and grasp. In short, truth, in its broadest sense, embraces the sum total of all that is knowable. No human being, however, innately limited as he is, can grasp that total truth. Only God is omniscient and, consequently, capable of knowing everything. <strong>The</strong> best that a man can hope for is the glimpse of a ray of the sun, the acquisition of a tiny EMJC Bulletin, January 2009 THE MANY FACES OF TRUTH page 3 segment of the whole, and that, too, only by developing a passion for knowledge. What human beings may think is the truth, therefore, may not be the truth at all. <strong>The</strong>re may be a higher truth available only to one who knows all the circumstances and facts. Hence, while Jacob cannot be completely exonerated from wrongdoing and he was in fact punished for his behavior by having to endure twentytwo years of exile, still his action loses some of its blackness when you consider all the surrounding circumstances such as Esau’s total lack of qualifications for the privileges of primogeniture. Furthermore, Hillel’s insistence that every bride be described as beautiful and lovely is not really falsification; because, regardless of how she looks to the rest of the world, every bride is at least beautiful and lovely in the eyes of her groom. God was also justified in modifying Sarah’s words, according to the Midrash, in order to preserve peace between husband and wife. Hence, when truth conflicts with other values such as peace, kindness, and compassion, it may be necessary to alter our understanding of what truth is really about. For this reason, one is not allowed to throw “truth” into men’s faces without considering the circumstances. For just as the average eye cannot look at the naked light of the sun without being blinded, so the truth presented bluntly and suddenly may produce a shock. This explains why it is not only unkind and brutal but even dangerous to tell a patient the worst about his illness, when you know that the ailing person cannot take it and that the only result of the revelation would be to aggravate the condition. <strong>The</strong> truth is also not always simple. Take bloodshed, for example. Not every person who takes another’s life should be branded as a murderer. Only he that does it maliciously and without just cause should be condemned for having committed a crime. But a man who acts in self-defense deserves exoneration. <strong>The</strong> Sages were quite right in regarding truth as one of the pillars upon which the world stands. Truth is not, however, so easy to know. It cannot be grasped independently of surrounding circumstances and without regard for other ideals with which it may conflict. <strong>The</strong> most that can be demanded of a human being is that he strive for the truth, knowing all the while that truth in its highest and most perfect formulation will always be the exclusive possession of Almighty God. ! ! "
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