Distance From Falsehoods

 Parshat Mishpatim

by Rabbi Avi Billet

There is a passage in the Talmud Shavuos 30b-31a. which asks the question – how do we know…. (there are many fillings for that blank). And the answer, in each case, is מדבר שקר תרחק – because we are commanded to distance ourselves from falsehoods (23:7) 

 These are the questions the Gemara asks – and the answer is always the same (translation is from Sefaria, with a slight expansion to explain the words of the Talmud):

 • The Sages taught: From where is it derived that a judge should not engage in advocacy [saneigeron] for his own statements and devise various pretexts to justify his erroneous rulings?

 • And from where is it derived with regard to a judge that a student who is an ignoramus should not sit before him to discuss the proceedings?

 • From where is it derived that a judge who knows that another judge is a robber and is disqualified from serving as a judge; and likewise, a witness who knows that another witness is a robber and is disqualified from serving as a witness; from where is it derived that he should not join him in judgment or testimony?

 • From where is it derived that in a case where a judge who knows that the witnesses testifying before him are lying even though he is unable to prove it through their cross-examination and with regard to the verdict the result will be that it is fraudulent, that he should not say: Since the witnesses are testifying and I cannot prove their deceit, I will decide the case based on their testimony, and let (31a) the chain [kolar] of culpability for the miscarriage of justice be placed around the neck of the false witnesses?

 • From where is it derived with regard to a student who is sitting before his teacher and sees a claim that provides advantage for a poor person and disadvantage for a wealthy person that he shall not remain silent?

 • From where is it derived with regard to a student who sees his teacher who is erring in judgment that he shall not say: I will wait for my teacher until he concludes the trial and then I will contradict him and construct a ruling of my own so that the verdict will be attributed to my name?

 • From where is it derived with regard to a student whose teacher said to him: You know concerning me that even if one were to give me one hundred times one hundred dinars, I would not fabricate a claim. Now, I have one hundred dinars in the possession of so-and-so, to whom I lent money, but I have only one witness of the two required to testify about the loan and enable me to collect payment; from where is it derived that the student shall not join with the other witness and testify?

 • Rather, the reference is to a case where the teacher said to him: It is certain that I have one witness, and you come and stand there beside him and do not say anything, as in that manner you do not express a lie from your mouth. Your silent presence will create the impression that I have two witnesses and lead the debtor to admit his debt. Even so, it is prohibited to do this…

 • There are three halakhot with regard to a creditor: From where is it derived with regard to one who is seeking repayment from another of a debt of one hundred dinars, and there are no witnesses to that effect, that he shall not say: I will claim that he owes me two hundred dinars so that he will admit that he owes me one hundred dinars, and he will become liable to take an oath to me, the oath of one who admits to part of a claim, and on that basis I will extend the oath and compel him to take an oath with regard to a debt that he owes me from another place?

 • From where is it derived with regard to one who is seeking repayment from another of a debt of one hundred dinars and claims that the debtor owes him two hundred dinars, that the debtor shall not say: I will completely deny his claim in court, and I will admit to him outside court so that I will not become liable to take an oath to him and he will not extend the oath and compel me to take an oath with regard to a debt that I owe him from another place?

 • From where is it derived with regard to three who are seeking repayment from one individual for a total of one hundred dinars, that one of the three should not assume the role of a sole litigant and claim one hundred dinars, and the other two will assume the role of witnesses so that they will exact payment of one hundred dinars from the debtor and divide it among them?

 • There are three halakhot with regard to a judge: From where is it derived with regard to two individuals who came to judgment, one dressed in rags and one dressed in a garment worth one hundred times one hundred dinars, that the judges say to the wealthy person: Dress like the poor person or dress the poor person in a garment like yours?

 • From where is it derived that a judge should not hear the statement of one litigant before the other litigant comes to court?

 • From where is it derived that a litigant shall not explain the rationale behind his statements to the judge before the other litigant comes to court? 

 The questions speak for themselves. Distancing from falsehood is clearly an important value in the character or the life of an observant Jew. 

 The Midrash and some commentaries expand upon this with other examples of what is being instructed with the distancing from falsehood. 

 Midrash Aggadah: This refers to sexual perversions, which of course can destroy the lives of all those involved. 

 

 Other Midrashim and virtually all commentators pick examples from the Talmudic passage noted above to illustrate their interpretations of this phrase. 

 B’chor Shor utilizes the verse at the beginning of the chapter (23:1 “Not to bear or accept a false report” as reminder to distance oneself from those who speak falsehoods, and those who are talebearers. As a result, one will fulfill the rest of the verse, which is to avoid killing (whether literally or metaphorically) the innocent and righteous. Seforno invokes Avos 1:9 to make the same point. Hanging around those who tell and spread falsehoods is only destructive to a society.

 HaKtav V’Hakabbalah writes that the verse doesn’t say “Don’t speak falsehoods.” That should be obvious. The point the Torah is emphasizing is to run away from falsehood! One must be able to discern that a perspective which is untrue is only destructive – and so one must go the other way to avoid getting sucked into it.

 R Yaakov Kaminetsky shared the story of the town Kushta (which means “Truth”) in which no one ever told a lie. And once when someone told a white lie about his wife not being home, when he was merely protecting her because her hair was uncovered, his two sons died on account of his lie. (Sanhedrin 97a) While some stories are meant to be taken at face value, one can certainly wonder about this particular story. In a way it sounds like Mark Twain’s story “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” in which the pretense that everyone in town is a truthteller and above board in their honesty is exposed by a man who sees through these “holier than thou” people to prove that their sacred truths are built on a pack of lies. 

 Our takeaway is twofold. On a local scale, it is time for what I’ll simply call the pool conversations to come to an end. We who do not have the full picture of any situation need to stop talking about our neighbors, need to find a way past the taking of sides, and need to help those who are having difficulty with our neighbors find a path through to a place of balanced equilibrium. There are few values greater than Shalom in our own ranks. And if we don’t have that, why would God give us Shalom from the outside. 

 On the more global scale, there is a war going on in the realm of media, propaganda, and truth. Everyone can lay claim to their own version of truth. But the truth about the Jewish people, versus the enemies of the Jewish people, is that at our core we value everyone’s life. We don’t have fondness for our enemies, but were they to leave us alone, we would leave them alone. Not so our enemies, who may claim to value life, but in truth celebrate as much death and carnage as they can create and unleash. 

 Who beheads Christians in the Congo (do a Google search to see the media is silent about this atrocity!)? Who is in the middle of a civil war in Syria and Yemen – in which hundreds of thousands have died? Who commits terror attacks in almost every land around the globe, taking advantage of the tolerance of a civil society to unleash their own aims to destroy those societies that grant freedoms? Who has incited the worst levels of anti-Semitism in the UK and in the US in the last 100 years? The biggest liars of them all, those who claim “peace” and who claim the Jews control the world, while they celebrate “holy war” and are infiltrating every society that doesn’t share their values in order to upend and slowly takeover those societies so they can control the world. 

 

 Those who don’t agree with this cancerous ideology have to wake up to see how the lies are spreading. As the verse says, if we don’t distance from lies, the innocent and the righteous suffer. We need look no further than the release of every hostage – particularly the live ones, but even the dead ones, to see how lies are winning and the world is suffering.

 מדבר שקר תרחק – so there can be peace amongst the ranks of civil human beings who have learned to tolerate differences and who wish to live in peace with one another, without forcing one way on everyone else.

Different Meanings of Eating “Lifnei HaElohim”

Parshat Yitro

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

After getting through the formalities of their reunion, which takes place in Moshe’s tent, Yisro brings offerings to God, and then sits down for a celebratory meal. The Torah’s way of describing it is “And Aharon and all the elders of Israel came to eat with Moshe’s father-in-law Lifnei HaElohim.” (18:12) Targum Yonatan (and others) note that Moshe isn’t mentioned because he is serving the food to the guests. Rashbam feels Moshe did not need to be mentioned because it was his tent – obviously he is there. 

Is that what “Lifnei HaElohim” means? We know that sometimes the word Elohim is לשון חול – meaning it does not refer to God, but refers to human leaders. (See Shmos 22:27) So perhaps the verse is simply saying Yisro is eating in Moshe’s presence. (see the 4th approach below) 

Most of the Midrashim and commentaries, however, see things differently, in that the phrase Lifnei HaElohim refers to the Divine, though there are different ways they come around to understanding what that means. 

 1 - Rashi famously says that we learn from this someone who benefits from a meal in which scholars are present is as if benefitting from the countenance of the Divine. This sentiment appears in a number of Midrashim (Pesikta, Midrash Sechel Tov, etc). Midrash Sechel Tov takes it a step further saying it doesn’t even have to be a meal! Simply greeting Talmidei Chachamim is like greeting the Divine! Some Jews take this so seriously that if they hear of Talmidei Chachamim coming to visit their town they will be sure to go and see them, even from a distance. Others make the trek to see their Rebbe or some other Torah personality, especially with their children, so the experience of “greeting the Divine” is a shared family value and experience.

 2 - Another approach to understanding what “Lifnei HaElohim” means refers specifically to the location of Moshe’s tent. Ibn Ezra says that because Moshe was camped to the east of the Ohel Moed (per how the Bnei Yisrael traveled around the Mishkan, as described in the beginning of the book of Bamidbar), his tent was closest to the Ohel Moed. For obvious reasons, this does not make sense at this point in time, since the Mishkan hasn’t been built. So perhaps Ibn Ezra is referring to the anticipated location of Moshe’s tent. Alternatively, Moshe’s tent is currently ON Har HaElohim/Har Sinai (18:5). Additionally, Ohel Moed is the term used to describe Moshe’s tent in 33:7. 

Midrash Sechel Tov also points to a location, namely that Moshe’s tent was close to the pillar of clouds. Since that led the way for Bnei Yisrael, it had a spirit of God (רוח א-לקים) in it, the glory of the Shekhinah appearing to Moshe from within it. Seforno says that Lifnei HaElohim refers to the Mizbeach upon which the korbanos had just been brought. Their meal took place within sight of the Mizbeach, thus the obvious reference to their eating before the Divine.

 3 - A third approach to understanding what Lifnei HaElohim references is based on what was done there. One activity that took place there was the offerings Yisro brought at the beginning of the verse. (Chizkuni) Another activity is Yisro’s conversion – circumcision and immersion, etc. The celebration before God is because Yisro has now brought himself תחת כנפי השכינה, under the wings of the Divine through his joining the Israelite nation. (Ramban) 

Rabbenu Bachaye expands upon this Seudas mitzvah, noting that this kind of celebration’s goal is for there to be a simcha of the soul that brings about the ability to have the Divine Spirit rest upon an individual. The כחות הנפש נקשרים בכחות הגוף – strength of the soul is connected with the strength of the body. When the strength of the body is fortified, the power of the soul is strengthened as well. 

 

 4 - A fourth approach is related to the opening suggestion of Moshe’s presence and the first approach (Talmidei Chachamim), and one component of the third approach – which focused on what took place there. This is advanced by Rabbi Yochanan Luria in his Meshivas Nefesh. The meal was being done in the presence of the Dayanim (Rabbinic Court) who presided over Yisro’s conversion, and that the meal was a celebration of Yisro’s conversion and Bris Milah. 

 Rabbi Luria goes into lengthy detail about how having a celebratory meal at a Bris is truly a Seudas Mitzvah. One reason he gives is that every time Mitzvos are given before Matan Torah at Sinai, they are given in groups of Mitzvos, such as the 7 Noachide laws, the mitzvos associated with the Korban Pesach, and even the few mitzvos given at Marah. The exception to this is Bris Milah, which was given as a single Mitzvah to Avraham Avinu. It is a standalone, and in a most clear way, it defined the relationship that Avraham had with the Divine, setting him apart from the rest of the world, not just physically, but as an entity whose children would have a most special and unique relationship with Hashem. 

 Yisro’s celebration at Har Sinai, with Moshe, Aharon, and the elders, was an affirmation of the special relationship that God has with the Jewish people, one that Yisro was most happy to enter of his own volition, and one which proved beneficial to himself and to all of Am Yisrael. 

 It is worthy to note that Rabbenu Bachaye’s teaching of having the physical impact the spiritual is a very important lesson that we need as a reminder. 

 We live in a physical world in which certain aspects of the physical world are meant for us to enjoy and benefit from. But we must always remember that our job is to take the physical and either elevate it to holiness, or help it elevate us to be able to rise in our own holiness and spiritual growth. 

 

 This not only means to always remind ourselves to say Brachos before and after eating. But it also means to choose what we eat very carefully! And to keep our focus on the notion that the goal of our eating is to help us serve Hashem better. 

 At funerals, I typically remind everyone that our respect to the body in burial comes not specifically for the body, which can no longer feel anything. It is because the body was (at a funeral) and is a vessel which contains the soul, and gives the soul a home to have a presence in this world. That presence in this world is most worthy when its goal is to serve Hashem with power, strength, and with the optimal health we can achieve. 

 The meal they had together Lifnei HaElohim was a combination and celebration of korbanos (offerings) and appreciation for God’s Chesed to the Jewish people. 

 If we can appreciate God’s Chesed to us, not only will we elevate our meals and turn them into celebrations, but we will make a conscious effort to eat wisely, engage in physical activity that is of benefit to our bodies, and serve Hashem better as a result. 

 May we be so blessed to do what is best for our physical selves, and in turn to use the gift of our guf to fulfill our mission of serving God as best as we are fit to, so we too can find ourselves living an existence that is always Lifnei HaElohim. 

The Two Tests of Faith

Parshat B’Shalach

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

I recall hearing the following conversation several times in school. 

Student: Why did you fail me on the test? 

Teacher: I didn’t “fail you.” The grade you got is the grade you earned!

A school test has several purposes. It is meant for the teacher to assess what the students have learned. It is for the students to demonstrate their mastery of the material, and when done right, their ability to transfer their knowledge and skills to new information, scenarios, examples that they haven’t studied yet, but which are solvable with the information they possess. 

There are other kinds of tests as well, such as tests of character, grit, ability, mental capacity, stamina, and even tests of faith.