The Truth is There

I heard from one of my Torah teachers that there can only exist one absolute truth but many lies and in case you haven’t noticed, but there are an awful lot of lies occupying an awful lot of space on planet earth at the moment.  In fact, our sages have coined this world as the world of falsehood.

The blurring of truth [emet] and falsehood [sheker] occurred at the beginning of creation due the sin of Adam.  Before the sin, truth and falsehood were clearly distinct; it was pretty obvious what was right and what was wrong. Truth – knowledge of and attachment to Hashem – was experienced internally. Falsehood – the evil inclination which draws us away from Hashem’s Will – was experienced externally. Without going into the reasons as to why Adam could have sinned and caused such a tragic spiritual descent for mankind, the result was that truth and falsehood became mixed up and morphed into a subjective good and bad, with the consequence that the falsehood, i.e. the Evil Inclination, is so integrated in our psyches that it has really taken over.  The ego reigns supreme confusing us in our decision making and blurring our ability to see an objective reality.

Our work therefore in this world is to select the good from the bad, truth from falsehood.

So what is the source of truth in the world?  Where does a Jew, and by extension a non-Jew, find his or her guide to objective reality?  It’s found in the Torah, the source of all divine wisdom.

It is also important to understand the following spiritual rules:

[a] In order for any falsehood to gain and maintain credibility or existence it has to have an aspect of truth in it, i.e. that truth must be found in the Torah and

[b] falsehood has a shelf life, i.e. it can’t exist indefinitely.

Based on the above, if we contemplate the various ideologies or lifestyles that are prevalent in modern society we should see some Torah value, even if distorted, in order for it to have existence or longevity.

The dominant religious faiths openly draw their tenets and inspiration from the Torah, albeit in a distorted or exaggerated way. Christianity accepts the Torah but calls it the “Old Testament”. Islam has several “laws” which are based on the mitzvot, like not taking interest, family purity laws, taking a 10^th of one’s for charity, fasting, prostrating during prayer, praying five times during the day as opposed to our three.  Both have taken the concept of a day of rest. Both have the concept of a Mashiach. Both desire Eretz Yisrael for themselves. Even ideologies like Buddhism have within them Jewish concepts, like taking the middle path [see Rambam/Maimonides]; I even came across a verse apparently penned by a Buddhist poet, which was actually lifted straight from Psalms, “Turn from evil, and do good”.  Amazing.

Looking at political ideologies. capitalism has at its heart the concept of free markets, that money should flow.  The word for money in Hebrew is Zuzim, which means just that; money goes from one place to another.  The only difference is that we are obliged to give a 10^th of our net income to charity.  Money is has to be spent wisely.  The Torah tells us that we are judged strictly on how ethically we manage our money, whether as a housewife or businessman.  Socialism has at its heart the concept of social justice. Of course, isn’t this the foundation of the Torah and service of Hashem: that justice is everything, caring for the poor and downtrodden, that everyone is equal in Hashem’s eyes? However, without emuna, we see how these ideologies have become corrupted.  We see how people build their lives around certain political values convinced that theirs is the true wisdom.  The recently deposed leader of the British Labor Party stood at a party conference and proclaimed proudly to his audience that he “didn’t have a religious faith, his faith was in politics”!  His tragedy is that he is Jewish; he doesn’t know that his strong beliefs are rooted in his soul.

Look at the concept of celebrity, the desire of people to unite around one person to whom we can aspire, who we can look up to, who we desire to emulate.  Is this not just the dark side of the concept of the Tzaddik, the righteous Jew, the Mashiach, for whom the whole of mankind is yearning for?

So where does this leave us as we race towards the redemptive climax of our people?  The Ramchal [Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzato] says that at the End of Days all falsehoods/evil will be manifest before Mashiach can be revealed but after that evil will be negated forever.  Mashiach can only come in a generation that is either good or evil.  Unfortunately, through our own behavior, we have chosen the path to redemption through the path of evil, by not adhering to the Torah and by overly involving ourselves with non-Jewish ideologies.  However, we should not be despondent because even evil has a purpose and the Jewish people will eventually wake up and realize the folly of putting our trust in “false gods”.

I believe this happening now.