Parshat Mishpatim:
In this week’s Parsha we are instructed to ‘stay far away from falsehood’. Apart from its obvious meaning of ‘don’t lie’, the Midrash explains that this means we are supposed to distance ourselves from twisted ideologies.
In the past many such distortions were found in the realms of idolatry. Nowadays, when paganism is out of vogue and limited to specific places in the East (and a few Western copies of Eastern idolatry like Western Occultism, Shamanism and Zen), twisted ideology has found its place in other ‘belief’ systems.
As an example, it has recently been revealed that the liberal west is not just dedicated to warping truth in their own country, they also spend millions of dollars on social engineering to warp truth in other countries too.
In their search for balance, they give equal weight to facts and falsehoods, they equate (at best, demonize at worst) a country fighting for survival with a terrorist organization that is proud of its targeting of civilians. They discuss moral equivalence while rebuking their ally for actions that they themselves are guilty of ten times over.
And unfortunately, these twisted ideologies have filtered into sectors of the Jewish world too. It is seen in the belief that concern for the welfare of ‘innocent civilians’ of the enemy (who by a vast majority voted in a terrorist organization to govern them and celebrated their ‘successes’) supersedes, or at least holds equal weight to, the welfare of their own peace loving people. It can be found in Jewish run organizations who truly believe that when ‘militants’ say clearly what they want and what they plan to do, that it is just hyperbole and they don’t really mean it.
And if you think this is only a problem on the left, the truth is that there are many twisted ideologies of the current right in the US and the Western world. To choose just one within the area of speech that some from the right espouse: The idea that freedom of speech automatically overrides anybody else’s feelings, that you can aggressively destroy an opponent by reducing them to a one-word insult, that anything can be trumpeted without thought and background checks to ensure that it won’t cause damage.
There are also many areas that go beyond the political divide. As an example, there are followers of both sides of the political debate who have the perverse ideology that violent rioting is the solution to a world they perceive to be wrong, while the truth is that the rule of law, even if faulty, is better than anarchy, (Pray for the welfare of the government for were it not for the fear of it, man would swallow his fellow alive – Pirkei Avot 3:2).
And in general life, our world has been taken over by extreme distortions like valuing people based on their external appearance, living life as a voyage to comfort rather than with any meaning or purpose, and escaping any real personal growth by immersing in screens and entertainment. Of course, there are many who push back on these ideologies, but unfortunately they are so all-pervasive that it is often a losing battle.
Now, if you are a religious Jew and you have read through all of that nodding your head at much of it, it is time to point out that many of these twisted ideologies have seeped into our world too. And we also have our own manufactured distortions which often take the form of seeing the Torah and Mitzvot as an end in themselves rather than as a crucial way to build a deep relationship with our Father in Heaven and those around us.
All of this, and much more, is incorporated in that short remark, ‘stay far away from falsehood’. Are we able to look inwards, be honest with ourselves, and see where our ideologies have strayed from the truth of the Torah? Are we capable of untwisting ourselves and straightening our views and behavior? Are we able to acknowledge that there is not a myriad of truths, but rather just one truth, and it is the truth of our loving Creator?
These are the questions we need to ask ourselves if we are going to have a chance of breaking free from the falsehoods of the world.