The Truth and Nothing but the Truth

Rabbi Melanie Aron

June 16, 2001

Looking over the commentaries on this week's Torah portion, I was reminded of an old joke. It concerns a congregation that was looking for a rabbi. They interviewed one candidate and then called his former community to check out his references. They were told that he was like Moses, an angel, even like Socrates. Immediately he was chosen for the position, but after a few weeks the congregation was very disappointed. The new rabbi's sermons were terrible. Even worse, he was nasty and uncaring, and he seemed ignorant of Jewish learning. The chair of the search committee called back the reference. What have you done to us? How could you lie so to a fellow congregation?

The man responded. I didn't lie -- Like Moses, this man can't speak (Moses is believed by Jewish tradition to have had a speech impediment), like an angel, he is not mensche (a decent moral human being) and like Socrates, he is no learned Jew.

The commentaries on this week's portion stress the fact that the evil report of the ten tribes was not a lie. The ten spies merely described what they saw and offered their opinion about the Israelite's chance for success. The spies didn't make up things that weren't there, but they did choose their words carefully, putting emphasis on those things likely to arouse fear.

In relation to these words the Kotzer rebbe taught: "Not every word which is not falsehood is truth. One who is not a liar, may still not be telling the truth."

It is interesting that in Jewish tradition, falsehood is not the measure of Lashon Hara (evil speech). Saying things that are true, while not libel under American civil law, is still lashon hara in Jewish tradition.

If, for example, we say something that is true, but we say it to those who don't need to know it, in a way that hurts another person, that is still lashon hara. If we tell a work associate that someone is in therapy, when that is unrelated to their work responsibilities, then even though it is true, it is lashon hara.

If we insinuate something negative without actually saying it, or leave the impression that someone did something that they didn't actually do, even if we don't lie, that is also lashon hara. For example, "did you see the principal, leaving the home of one of the single young teachers at 2am last night. He certainly looked very disheveled." The person saying those words may know that the teacher had been in the emergency room all evening and that the principal was helping her out, by sitting with her there and bringing her home, but for some reason he has chosen to leave out all those important details. Without speaking a word of falsehood, he could do a lot of damage.

Recently in a history of the modern state of Israel, I was reading about the slander campaign waged against Levi Eshkol in the days immediately preceeding the 6 Day War. Isolated events in his life were recounted in a distorted way, such as to undermine the country's confidence in their government.

In the 19th chapter of Leviticus , the holiness code, the chapter that is called the heart of the Torah, we are admonished. "Do not go about as a talebearer among your neighbors." Of course, that is much easier said than done. If you think about it, much of our conversation is about other people, and general neutral talk over strays into negative talk. It is also relatively easy to leave a false impression by leaving out critical details or when another person doesn't know everything you know.

Rabbi Israel Salanter waged a valiant campaign against lashon hara in the yeshivot of Eastern Europe.

Our daily prayer the Tefillah begins and ends with reference to our speech. We start our prayers with the words; Adonai sefatei tiftach, Eternal God open up my lips- praying that our speech be praise of God. And we conclude Elohei Netzor leshoni O God keep my tongue from evil - praying that our words do not cause harm.