VAYECHI 1987

In the Torah portion Vayechi we learn about the problem of truth.  This is a very difficult problem.  The rabbis teach us that the world rests on three things:  Alohemes, A1 o d i n, and Aloshoiom; on truth, justice, and peace. Sometimes, though, it is very difficult to reconcile these three needs. Sometimes if we overstress the truth we will not be able to have peace, and sometimes if we are so concerned with the justice of a particular cause, we are going to do a great deal of injustice.
In this Torah portion we learn how Jacob dies, and how after he dies, the brothers tend to Joseph and they say, "Your father commanded before his death saying, 'So you should tell to Joseph, please forgive the sins of your brothers because they did bad to you, and now,  please forgive the transgressions of the servants of the 3-d of your father,'"  When Joseph heard this, he wept.  The rabbis say that nowhere do we learn that Jacob commanded his children to tell this to Joseph before he died.  In fact, the rabbis even doubt whether Jacob ever knew that the brothers had sold Joseph to Egypt.  After all, they never said that Joseph was killed.  All they brought was a blood-soaked garment, the coat of many colors, that Jacob had given to Joseph*  Jacob looked at that garment and he, himself, said that "a wild animal has torn my son, Joseph".  For all he knew, Joseph could have been attacked by bandits and then sold as a slave to Egypt, or he could have been wounded by an animal and picked up by a caravan and sold as a slave to Egypt.  Nowhere do we ever find in the Torah that Jacob knew that the brothers had sold Joseph to Egypt.  In fact, if he would have known, he probably would have mentioned it in the final blessings that he gave his children.  The brothers felt justified in stretching the truth in order to maintain peace in the family.  They realized Joseph was all powerful and could do what he wanted to do.  They also knew that if more hatred were stirred up, it
would do no one any good.  Also, they probably felt that if Jacob did not command this directly, they assumed he commanded it indirectly because when he gave the blessings to his children before he died, he said, "Koksu - gather together in here sons of Jacob",  He also said, "Hayosvu", which means "assemble".  In other words, for the Jewish people to be worthy of the blessings, they all had to be unified; they had to gather together.  They had to feel love and concern and care and compassion for each other,,  This they could only do if they maintained the relationships they had now in Egypt,  If Joseph would try to take revenge it would destroy this unity,  It would destroy this care and concern and compassion which was absolutely necessary if the Jewish people were to survive in Egypt.
So, indirectly, the brothers claim that Jacob did command them to tell Joseph to make peace, because he had commanded all his children to make peace with each of them,  The rabbis tell us that truth, too, can be bent under certain conditions. We do not hold, like Kant did with his categorical imperative or Augustine in his world, that you can never tell a lie.  According to Kant, if you were protecting a little girl and a sex maniac knocked on your door and you knew he would attack the girl and maybe even kill her and you had no way of stopping him, if this man asked if the girl were there you would have to say yes, while Jews would obviously say no.  When life is in danger, we are allowed to tell a lie.  We are allowed to fudge the truth for the sake of justice, for the sake of peace.  Many times people are so concerned with their own sense of justice that they do so much injustice.  Look at what the terrorists do today.  Because they have a cause, they feel they can wreak havoc on the world.  It is very difficult to balance peace and justice and truth.
In this same Torah portion we learn how Jacob gave the final blessing to his
children,  Here Jacob did not flinch from the truth.  We are only allowed to fudge the truth when it comes to making peace and harmony among people, not when it comes to deceiving them, tricking them, hurting them.  Jacob realized, too, that when he deal with people you have to deal with them in truth,  He never felt that he should deceive himself or his children when it came to what he thought was their true characteristics,  When we deal with people we always have to recognize the truth.  We have to know who we are dealing with.  He knew that Shimon and Levi had terrible tempers and were prone to violence.  Therefore, he did not want them to be given land in Israel.  He did not want the fanatics to be concentrated together.  He wanted them to be spread among Israel.  Levi turned that curse into a blessing and became the teachers and the rabbis of Israel,  Shimon, though, lapsed into anonymity by being absorbed into the Tribe of Judah.
We see that truth demands that we know who we are dealing with and we understand the person's characteristics and how they may respond.  Peace demands that we fudge the final results sometimes so that we can live together in peace and harmony.  Knowing that a person has a temper means that you expect him to get mad once in a while but that you make allowances for it.  It does not mean that you will always say to him that this person is always good and will never do anything bad.  Truth means that we have to recognize who we are dealing with and what we are dealing with, but we also have to try to make sure that we can all live together in peace and harmony,
This, too, is what happens in the Haphtorah when David gives some harsh words to Solomon,  He tells him to be a man, but he also warns him against some of David's closest confederates, like Joab, the chief of his army, and about others.  He tells him, "Watch out for these people.  These people sometimes will
do things that are against your public policy.  They will do things for their own benefit and not for the good of the community and kingdom,  Watch out for them.  Know the truth about them.  Always try to seek peace and work with them, but remember who they are and what they are,"  Truth demands that we do not fool ourselves and we do not fool others, but peace demands that sometimes we fudge the edges so we can all live together in harmony,  It is not easy to balance Din, Ernes, and Sholom, but that is what we are called upon to do,  That is what the study of the Torah is to teach us,  It teaches us to pursue truth while at the same time maintaining peace, how to pursue justice while at the same time maintaining peace and truth,  It is a difficult task, but we can do it if we apply ourselves,
I am reminded of the story they tell about a man who was passing by and noticed a group of boys surrounding a dog,  He asked the boys, "What are you doing?" The leader of the boys said, "Well, we just found this stray dog and we are trying to figure out who will own it.  We decided that the boy who told the biggest lie would get the dog,"  The man looked aghast and he said, "Boys, you should be ashamed of yourself,  When I was young I never told a lie,"  The leader of the boys turned to the others and said, "Give him the dog,  We can't beat that lie,"  That, of course, is true.  All of us, many times refrain and put in other contexts truths,  We change them a little bit.  We fudge them a little bit.  This we should never do unless we are doing it for peace, for a higher goal,  To fudge the truth for personal advantage is wrong, but to maintain peace, justice, we are allowed to fudge the truth a little bit.  We must be careful, though, that we realize always what the truth is, who we are dealing with and what we are dealing with, and that if we change the truth at all it will only be for the sake of peace.