(יח) רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר, עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד, עַל הַדִּין וְעַל הָאֱמֶת וְעַל הַשָּׁלוֹם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (זכריה ח) אֱמֶת וּמִשְׁפַּט שָׁלוֹם שִׁפְטוּ בְּשַׁעֲרֵיכֶם:
(18) Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel used to say: on three things does the world stand: On justice, on truth and on peace, as it is said: “execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates” (Zechariah 8:16).
- Truth can be a difficult word to define, what does it mean here & why is it one of the 3 foundations of the world?
(ג) וְעַל הָאֱמֶת. שֶׁלֹּא יְשַׁקְּרוּ אִישׁ בַּעֲמִיתוֹ:
(3) "and on truth": [Meaning] that people should not lie to each other.
Dr. Joshua Kulp
(א) הדין הוא הנהגת המדינה ביושר וכבר בארנו בפרק הד' שהאמת הוא המעלות השכליות והשלום הוא מעלות המדות וכשימצא אלו השלשה יהיה המציאות בשלימות שאפשר לו בלא ספק:
(1) Judgement is the administration of a country with fairness. And we have already explained in the fourth chapter that truth is the intellectual virtues and that peace is the virtues of character. And when these three are found, existence will be as perfect as is possible, without a doubt.
(ב) ועל האמת. שיש לאדם ללכת בדרכי התשובה שהוא אמת ותורתו אמת והולך בדרכי הקב"ה אמת גם כן ילך באותו הדרך שנאמר והלכת בדרכיו. ואמרו חז"ל (יבמות סג.) שאפי' ספור דברים בעלמא אין לו לאדם לשקר כההוא עובדא דבריה דרב וכו' אמר ליה מעלה אמך א"ל אנא הוא דהפיכנא לה א"ל היינו דאמרי אינשי דנפיק ממך טעמא ילפך ואת לא תעבד משום שנאמר (ירמיה ט' ד') למדו לשונם דברי שקר. כי האדם המרגיל לשונו לדבר שקר בדבר שאין בה לא הפסד ולא תועלת גם כי יבא לדבר דברים של עיקר לא יוכל לומר האמת כי פיהו המדבר וההרגל שולט עליו:
(2) "on truth": As a person should walk in the paths of repentance - as God is true and God's Torah is true - and walk in the ways of the Holy One, blessed Be, of truth. And he should also go in that path, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 28:9), "and you shall go in His ways." And the sages, may their memory be blessed, said (Yevamot 63a) that even in the recounting of mundane words should a person not lie, like that story of Rav's son, etc.: [Rav] said to him, "Your mother has improved." He said [back] to him, "It is I that reversed [your words to bring about the change]." He said, "This is as people say, 'The one that comes from you will teach you reason.' But you should not do this because of that which is stated (Jeremiah 9:4), 'they taught their mouths to speak words of falsehood.'" For a person who accustoms his tongue to speak falsehood about a matter that has neither a loss nor gain will - when he comes to speak matters of principle - also not be able to speak the truth; as it is his mouth that will speak and habit rules over it.
- The letters of the words Emet/Sheker אמת שקר themselves communicate about their relative value
They further taught:
Shin: Falsehood [sheker]. Tav: Truth [emet].
Why are the letters of the word sheker adjacent to one another in the alphabet, while the letters of emet are distant from one another? That is because while falsehood is easily found, truth is found only with great difficulty.
And why do the letters that comprise the word sheker all stand on one foot, and the letters that comprise the word emet stand on bases that are wide like bricks? Because the truth stands eternal and falsehood does not stand eternal.
- If lying is clearly such a negative phenomenon, what's the reason it happens so frequently?
R. Mendel:
"...[lying] occurs as a result of chasing after the pleasures of wealth, honor, and [seeking] companionship first in permissible ways and then by forbidden ways...and this habit leads to deception that has nothing to do with gaining anything..."
...In the end, lies do not have 'legs' and even if afterwards someone tells the truth, we will not believe them anymore...and eventually the [liar] will be hated by all...
...We must look at the root causes of lying and practice humility, justice, and silence, and pursue a love of truth...even when truth-telling may cause us to lose wealthy or 'glory'
- Let's remember though there are times it is better to tell a 'white lie', a 'gentle deception' when the only thing that will be harmed would be a person's self-image and/or it's an issue of perception
- Discussion: Apart from occasional 'white lies' for good purposes, there's a lot of falsehood/lying in the world, can we imagine a world in which honesty is more common, where there's more Emet than Sheker? What would that world look like? Are we very far away from that world, or pretty close? What can we do to bring that world closer?