DECEMBER 28 • 2023 | 55
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Judaism seems never to have
been in doubt. There is, for
example, a powerful moment
in Tanach when King David’s
son Absalom mounted a coup
d’etat against his father. David
was forced to flee. Eventually
there was a battle between
Absalom’s troops and David’s.
Absalom, who was hand-
some and had fine hair, was
caught by it when it became
entangled in the branches of a
tree. Left hanging there, Joab,
captain of David’s army, killed
him.
When David heard the
news, he was overcome with
grief: “The King was shak-
en. He went up to the room
over the gateway and wept.
As he went, he said: ‘O, my
son Absalom! My son, my
son Absalom! If only I had
died instead of you — O
Absalom, my son, my son!’” 2
Samuel 18:33
Joab was brutal in his
response to the King: “Today
you have humiliated all your
men, who have just saved your
life … You love those who
hate you and hate those who
love you … Now go out and
encourage your men.” 2 Sam.
19:6-8
David’s grief at the loss
of his son conflicts with his
responsibilities as head of state
and his loyalty to the troops
who have saved his life. Which
comes first: his duties as a
father or as a king?
The existence of conflicting
values means that the kind of
morality we adopt and society
we create depend not only on
the values we embrace but also
on the way we prioritize them.
Prioritizing equality over free-
dom creates one kind of soci-
ety — Soviet Communism, for
example. Prioritizing freedom
over equality leads to market
economics. People in both
societies may value the same
things but they rank them

differently in the scale of val-
ues, and thus how they choose
when the two conflict.
That is what is at stake in
the stories of Sarah’s laughter
and Joseph’s brothers. Truth
and peace are both values, but
which do we choose when they
conflict? Not everyone among
the rabbinic Sages agreed.
There is, for example, a
famous argument between
the schools of Hillel and
Shammai as to what to say
about the bride at a wedding.
(See Ketubot 16b) The custom
was to say that “The bride
is beautiful and graceful.”
Members of the School of
Shammai, however, were not
prepared to say so if, in their
eyes, the bride was not beauti-
ful and graceful. For them, the
supreme value was the Torah’s
insistence on truth: “Keep far
from falsehood” (Ex. 23:7).
The School of Hillel did
not accept this. Who was to
judge whether the bride was
beautiful and graceful? Surely
the bridegroom himself. So to
praise the bride was not mak-
ing an objective statement that
could be tested empirically.
It was simply endorsing the
bridegroom’s choice. It was a
way of celebrating the couple’s
happiness.
Courtesies are often like
this. Telling someone how
much you like the gift they
have brought, even if you
don’t, or saying to someone,
“How lovely to see you”
when you were hoping to
avoid them, is more like good
manners than an attempt to
deceive. We all know this, and
thus no harm is done, as it
would be if we were to tell a
lie when substantive interests
are at stake.

MERCY AND TRUTH
More fundamental and phil-
osophical is an important
Midrash about a conversa-

tion between God and the
angels as to whether human
beings should be created
at all: “Rabbi Shimon said:
When God was about to cre-
ate Adam, the ministering
angels split into contending
groups. Some said, ‘Let him
be created.’ Others said, ‘Let
him not be created.’ That is
why it is written: ‘Mercy and
truth collided, righteousness
and peace clashed’” (Psalms
85:11).
“Mercy said, ‘Let him be
created, because he will do
merciful deeds.’
“Truth said, ‘Let him not be
created, for he will be full of
falsehood.’
“Righteousness said, ‘Let
him be created, for he will do
righteous deeds.’
“Peace said, ‘Let him not be
created, for he will never cease
quarrelling.’
“What did the Holy One,
blessed be He, do? He took
truth and threw it to the
ground.
“The angels said, ‘Sovereign
of the universe, why do You
do thus to Your own seal,
truth? Let truth arise from the
ground.’
“Thus it is written, ‘Let
truth spring up from the
earth.’” Psalms 85:12
This is a challenging text.
What exactly were the angels
saying? What does it mean to
say that “God took truth and
threw it to the ground?” And
what happened to the claim
made by the angel of Peace
that humans “will never cease
quarrelling?”
I interpret it as mean-
ing that humans are
destined to conflict so long
as contending groups each
claim to have a monopoly of
the truth. The only way they
will learn to live at peace is
by realizing that they, finite
as all humans are, will never
in this life achieve truth as it

is in Heaven. For us, truth is
always partial, fragmentary,
the view from somewhere
and not, as philosophers
sometimes say, “the view
from nowhere.”
This deep insight is, I
believe, the reason why the
Torah is multi-perspectival,
why Tanach contains so many
different kinds of voices, why
Mishnah and Gemara are
structured around argument,
and why Midrash is built on
the premise that there are
“70 faces” to Torah. No other
civilization I know has had
so subtle and complex an
understanding of the nature
of truth.
Nor has any other so valued
peace. Judaism is not and
never was pacifist. National
self-defense sometimes
requires war. But Isaiah
and Micah were the first
visionaries of a world in which
“nation shall not lift up sword
against nation.” (Is. 2:4; Mic.
4:3) Isaiah is the poet laureate
of peace.
Given the choice, when
it came to interpersonal
relations the Sages valued
peace over truth, not least
because truth can flourish
in peace while it is often the
first casualty in war. So, the
brothers were not wrong to
tell Joseph a lie for the sake of
peace within the family.
It reminded them all the
deeper truth that not only
their human father, now
dead, but also their heavenly
Father, eternally alive, wants
the people of the covenant to
be at peace, for how can Jews
be at peace with the world
if they are not at peace with
themselves?

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan

Sacks served as the chief rabbi of

the United Hebrew Congregations of

the Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His

teachings have been made available

to all at rabbisacks.org.