Parshas Mishpatim
Honesty Is The Divine Policy
By Rabbi Shlomo Jarcaig
With the Torah's discussion of the mitzvah (Divine command) obligations of
one Jew to another, the Children of Israel are charged with their essential
life's mission: to foster a loving relationship with the Divine by
emulating
His attributes. When instructing emulation of G-d's truth, the Torah tells
us, "Distance yourself from a false word" (Shemos/Exodus 23:7). It was
insufficient to merely write "Do not lie" when it extolled the attribute of
honesty. The Talmud (Shavuos 31a) cites numerous cases in which one does
not lie but his actions are prohibited because they are either misleading
or
their silence prevents the truth from coming out. Those acts are prohibited
because the Torah did not merely say "Do not lie," but told us to actively
distance ourselves from the untrue.
When describing the difference between truth and falsehood, the Talmud
(Shabbos 104a) notes the differences between the words of true and false.
The three letters that spell the Hebrew word for truth, "emes", are the
first, middle, and last of the Hebrew alphabet, and all have two legs upon
which to stand (like a capital A). The letters are far apart from each
other
because the truth is not easily found in this world; nevertheless, truth,
like the letters that comprise its name, stands forever strong and
unwavering. The three letters for "sheker" - falsehood - in contrast,
stand
on one leg each (like a P) and are close to each other. Falsehood is
unstable, easily toppled, but very common and easily found. Maharal (1)
notes that removal of the first letter of "emes", aleph, which as the first
letter of the alphabet has a numerical value (2) of one, the smallest
numerical value, would leave the word "mes", meaning dead. If one deviates
from the truth even one iota they have removed themselves from the
everlasting reality and even though the majority is still true, the
totality
is false.
Rabbi Yehuda Zev Segal (3) was once riding an English intercity train. He
started his trip in the economy section and paid the conductor his fare,
but
when rowdy fellow passengers disturbed him he moved to the first class car.
Rabbi Segal expected the conductor to come through again, at which time he
intended to pay the difference for the upgraded seat. Rabbi Segal reached
his destination without seeing the conductor again. He went to the station
ticket agent to pay the difference and the agent told him it was not
necessary to pay. Not satisfied, Rabbi Segal went to the stationmaster and
paid the extra fare. Why was he so driven to tender the funds that had
already been forgiven?
Because Rabbi Segal understood that the minutiae of the mitzvos are not
senseless and are not a burden. Just as the art connoisseur appreciates the
exquisite detail of a masterpiece, so, too, a mitzvah connoisseur, the Jew
who strives to utilize every mitzvah to foster his loving relationship with
the Divine, appreciates that going above and beyond to act with honesty and
emulate G-d's truth is a special opportunity to elevate and strengthen his
loving relationship with the Master of the Universe.
Have a Good Shabbos!
(1) acronym for Rabbi Yehuda Loewe; 1526-1609; Chief Rabbi in Moravia,
Posen
and Prague; one of the seminal figures in Jewish thought in the last five
centuries, he authored works in all fields of Torah
(2) known as gematria, every letter of the alphabet is assigned a numerical
value; the first nine are the units 1 through 9, the next nine are the tens
10 through 90 and the final four are the hundreds 100 through 400
(3) previous Rosh Yeshiva/Dean of the Manchester Yeshiva; 1910-1993;
renowned for his creation of a structured system for the study of laws of
restraint in speech
Text Copyright © 2005 by Rabbi Shlomo Jarcaig
and Torah.org.
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