For this week's D'var Torah, I would like to share a quick yet profound thought. [You must be thinking, "How can you say that your thoughts a profound? Why don't you do the writing, and allow me to decide if it is profound or not." My response to you is, "Fine, Mr. Attitude".]
In this week's parasha, Parashat Mishpatim, we are given the prohibition of lying.
"Distance yourself from a lie" (Shemot 23:7).
It is interesting that the Torah uses an unconventional way to give us this prohibition. "Distance yourself from a lie." What ever happened to the plain and simple, "Don't lie?" Why are we being told to distance ourselves from lie? You don't see it saying, "Distance yourself from murder;" it says, "Don't murder." The Torah does not state, "Distance yourself from sha'atnez;" it says, "Don't wear sha'atnez." (I just picked two random mitzvot, and I can continue with many more, but I won't, to save both of us a few more minutes.) Why is there this peculiar directive of distancing ourselves from lying?
The answer is simple. The Mesillat Yesharim states that, if the Torah would have written, "Don't lie," that would be insufficient. It is not enough simply to not lie. Many times, we will say the truth, just not the whole truth. For example, let's say there is a pie of pizza, and everyone is supposed to take two slices. Now, it turns out that I'm hungry, so I take a third. But it seems that someone didn't get a second slice because I ate his slice. So, someone asks me, "Hey, Adam, did you eat three slices of pizza?" and I respond, "I ate two slices." Now, the truth is, I did eat two slices; however, I didn't stop after two. After I ate two, I ate a third, as well. Did I eat two slices? Yes. Was I lying? No, because I did eat two slices. But was I distant from lying? No. I was on the border of lying. For all intents and purposes, I was lying.
When it comes to lying, we are all geniuses. We can justify anything and we can convince ourselves that we are telling the truth. That is precisely why it is so dangerous. I repeat - that fact that you can even fool yourself is the very reason that lying is so dangerous. Once you don't even realize that you are lying, you will never be able to stop. You will ruin all your relationships, be it in the work field, with a friend, or with a family member. It simply will not work.
It is for this reason that the Torah states, "Distance yourself from a lie." It is not enough to tell the truth; but you always have to say the complete truth, free of even the tiniest smidgen of a lie.
Sometimes, it hurts to tell the truth. Especially when you are caught in an extremely uncomfortable situation, like my pizza example above. It's very easy to just lie and save yourself SO MUCH embarrassment. We all know exactly what I mean. Even so, just tell the truth, even if it embarrasses you. If anything, that embarrasment will prevent you from doing other wrong things as well. So in a sense, truth is the cure-all. And, do you want to be known as a liar? Even for yourself, no one wants to be a liar.
Shabbat Shalom,
I hope you enjoyed the thought, and I hope that you will implement it in your life.
Sincerely yours,
Avraham Adam Sabzevari
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