TORAH PORTION
WITH LONG LINES WAITING
GOLDENBERG PHOTOGRAPHY
When Telling The 'Truth
Merits Punishment
MICHAEL BROOKS
Special to The Jewish News
ccording to the Tal-
mud, the very seal of
the Holy One, blessed
be He, is truth (Shabbat 58a).
The value of truth not-
withstanding, the sages
maintain that it is permissi-
ble to occasionally deviate
from truth for several
reasons, such as for the sake
of peace. God himself resorts
to some latitude with the
strict truth in reporting to
Abraham Sarah's incredulity
at the news that she will give
birth, falsely attributing to
her a concern about her own
old age rather than her hus-
band's (Genesis 18:12). But
while white lies are some-
A
Shabbat Shelach:
Numbers
13:1-15:41,
Joshua 2:1-24
times permitted, truth is
preferable, and every effort
should normally be made to
"keep away from a lying
word" (Exodus 23:7).
Parashat Shelach confronts
us with a challenge to our
understanding about speak-
ing the truth. At God's com-
mand, Moses sent 12 spies to
reconnoiter the land of Ca-
naan and to report on its con-
dition and potential for con-
quest and settlement. After
40 days the spies returned
and weighed in, as Jews are
wont to do, with two opinions.
Ten of the spies brought back
an "evil report" of the land,
emphasizing the difficulties
and dangers which awaited
them if they were to attempt
a conquest, and claiming that
the land itself was an "eretz
ochelet yoshveha" — a harsh
land which eats its in-
habitants alive.
Joshua and Caleb, on the
other hand, proclaimed that
the land they had seen was an
"eretz zavat chalav u'dvash"
— one flowing with milk and
honey, and one which God
would surely give to them if
they would overcome their
fear. The people are punished
with 40 years of wandering in
the wilderness for their will-
ingness to believe the evil
report, and the 10 spies who
brought the report were
punished with death.
The 10 were punished for
Michael Brooks is director of the
B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation at
the University of Michigan.
bringing an evil report and
demoralizing the people, but
not fo telling a falsehood. In-
deed, our long experience of
living in our truly precious
promised land of Israel is that
only with the greatest effort
does it precariously become a
land flowing with milk and
honey. It is, rather, often a
land of challenge and great
difficulty. The 10 spies, for all
of their exaggeration, may
have reported more truly
than Joshua and Caleb, and
it may well be that for this
very reason they were
punished.
This is, after all, not the on-
ly episode in the Torah where
one is punished for speaking
the truth. In the Garden of
Eden, God tells Adam not to
eat of the fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil,
"for in the day that you eat
from it you will surely die."
When the serpent entices Eve
to eat from the fruit of the
tree he says, "You will not
surely die, for God knows that
in the day you eat from it,
your eyes will be opened and
you will be as God, knowing
good and evil?'
She and Adam did eat from
the fruit of the tree and,
mirabile dictu, their eyes
were opened, and they did not
die. The serpent had spoken
the truth, and was duly
punished for it. (There are
many morals to be drawn
from this particular story, but
one which we do not draw
often enough is that while we
should not necessarily heed
the words of the serpent, we
should always pay close atten-
tion to what he says. Serpents
seldom lie.)
Truth is a great virtue in
Judaism, but it has a moral
valence. It is an expression
not simply of what is, but of
what can and should be. Our
good sense tells us that when
there is an obvious disparity
between the reality of our
situation and our ideal
values, we should stop pro-
claiming our values or risk
the label of hypocrisy. Our
Judaism teaches us that it is
precisely when we are con-
fronted with such a disparity
that we are required to
publicly espouse our ideals,
even as we deal with the less
pleasant reality.
Joshua and Caleb rightly
maintained an ideal vision of
the land, one which, as they
surely knew, was not yet true.
But because of their vision of
the potentiality of their truth,
they were prepared to stand
by their people and lead them
through the very real trials.
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