The Importance of Truth: Rabbi Weinblatt’s Sermon
The Importance of Truth
This week’s Torah reading features a curious anomaly which has been the subject of rabbinic commentaries throughout the ages. When Moses tells the Pharaoh that God will slay the firstborn of the Egyptians, he says it will occur kehatzot, which means literally “somewhere around midnight”, or “at approximately midnight”.
Rashi points out that Moses is quoting God, and notes that it is highly unlikely that God would have said something so tentative, so uncertain. God surely knows when midnight is, and would not have used such imprecise language. It is hard to imagine God saying something that we might say – the equivalent of when we say, “I’ll be there around 12-ish.”
Rashi says that in fact, God told Moses the deed would happen at midnight, which leads to the logical conclusion that it was Moses who decided to say “midnightish”, not God. When speaking to the Pharaoh, Moses decided to modify slightly and tell Pharaoh it would happen 12’ish, around midnight and not at midnight.
A seemingly minor point – yet it raises the questions: Why did Moses feel the need to amend what God had told him? Why didn’t Moses want to say to Pharaoh that it would happen “at midnight,” as God had revealed to him? Could it be that he worried that God might not come on time?
It wasn’t because he doubted God’s ability to appear at the precise moment He said He would be there. Nor was it because of a lack of faith in God.
No, Rashi tells us that Moses was concerned that Pharaoh’s astrologers might miscalculate the time and that as a result, they might think that if the plague came at a time either prior to or after the precise midnight hour they would say Moses had misled them and therefore since he wasn’t truthful he couldn’t be trusted. They would use it to question and cast doubt on and to undermine Moses’ veracity and truthfulness. They would use it to discredit Moses and would claim, even though it would have been the result of their error, that the seemingly minor discrepancy undermined his credibility.
Moses was concerned that if his adversaries and his people thought he wasn’t telling the truth he would be perceived as unreliable and would not be trusted.
Leo Kass’ reading of our Torah portion, which I have referred to in recent weeks says that this week’s parasha shows several important aspects of God’s essence. The plagues show that Adonai is more powerful than nature and everything revered in Egypt, more powerful than anything they worshipped – the Nile, the magicians and Pharaoh. Since he is a moral deity, concerned with justice, he dispenses justice and extracts punishment from those who are not just. His use of power shows that God cares for the Children of Israel, protecting and sheltering them from all the harm which is inflicted upon their oppressors. And this extends to all of Israel, not just the elite.
And Kass also observes that the Lord is truthful, that unlike Pharaoh, He does what He says He will do. Again, the theme of truth is central to our understanding of this week’s Torah reading.
Moses did not want to give his detractors or enemies any grounds to question or doubt his veracity. He understood the importance of telling the truth. And that teaches and sums up the importance of truthfulness as the foundation of society, and how important it is to tell the truth, especially for a leader.
Each Shabbat as part of the drama and pageantry of the ceremony surrounding the reading of the Torah, just before we say the Shema, and just before we take the Torah out of the Ark, the Aron haKodesh, we sing the words in Aramaic – “Beh, Beh Ana Rahatz, v’lishma kadisha, kadisha yakira…..” And just before that we say the following:
“Not upon mortals do we rely, not upon angels do we depend, but upon the God of the Universe, the God of truth, whose Torah is truth, whose prophets are truth, and who abounds in deeds of goodness and truth.”
It is unusual to repeat a word so much in a prayer. Perhaps the word “truth” is emphasized in the hope that it will sink in as being essential to society. Or perhaps it is repeated to call attention to the fact that the words we are about to hear, words of Torah are true. Trust is the byproduct of truth which is why once we have declared these words, the prayer continues, “In God alone do we place our trust…”
The Hebrew word for truth, emet, is spelled with the first letter of the alphabet, alef, the middle letter, mem, and the final letter, tav, teaching that it is at the beginning, middle and end of all. Sheker, the word for lie, is formed by the last three letters of the alphabet, and with the order all mixed up – reflects the chaos that results from falsehood when truth is absent.
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel is quoted in Pirke Avot as saying that truth is one of the three pillars, along with justice and peace that sustains the world.
In the morning service, after we say the words of the Mee Camocha prayer, we say the words emet, truth, a number of times. We say, “Emet vaytziv” – which can be loosely translated to mean – Truth is firm, stable or enduring. Truth is the foundation of belief and faith, which is why in the evening service the Mee Camocha is followed by the words Emet v’emunah – which could be translated as – truth and faithfulness, or truth and belief. They go hand in hand.
On this Shabbat, the week when our nation inaugurated its 46th President, I pray that truth will be at the foundation of our society so that we will have faith in our government and believe in the words of our leaders. Then the words of the Book of Psalms shall be fulfilled, “Truth shall spring forth from the earth, and righteousness shall descend from the heavens above.”
Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt
January 23, 2021
