Justice, Truth, and Peace

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna. 

The One Thing 

It was a very good and wise question. The young man who came to me to be blessed before his wedding seemed to be a very serious man. He had studied the book The Garden of Peace, had listened to my instructions, and really felt that he had received a wonderful set of tools for life, but, still, he asked me the following question: 

“Kvod Harav, if I would have asked you to tell me only one thing, only one habit, that I should take upon myself and stick to it throughout my marriage – what is the most central one? What is the one thing that you would recommend that I take upon myself? What is the thing that one mustn’t do without, no matter what the price?” 

Before reading the answer, try to stop and think what you would have said, and what you think I said to that groom. It’s possible that you are going to be surprised… 

The answer I gave him was very simple: “If you want just one thing to hold on to with all your strength, always and at any price, hold on to the midda of emet – truth. Never lie to your wife!” 

Laying the Foundations 

It’s true that in my book I dealt with and emphasized a number of very basic rules in shalom bayit (peace at home), and it is true that it is important to respect, consider, compliment and refrain from commenting etc. etc., and indeed one has to learn and do everything; but experience teaches us that even a husband who has made many mistakes and has even behaved in the most disgraceful way, and created even more difficult problems that I prefer not to mention here – there is almost always a way to rectify the situation, and one should not give up. I have seen hundreds of homes rehabilitate themselves after having been in these bad places. 

But when a wife feels that her husband is a liar – it is almost impossible to rectify the situation. She doesn’t believe in him anymore, she is not capable of feeling any connection with him, because when there is no trust, there is no chance of connecting! 

There is a saying in Hebrew, that “Falsehood has no legs to stand on.” Nothing can stand on a lie. Truth is the basis of life, of the world, of human society and of the Jewish home.  

All evil and ruination and the yetzer hara (evil inclination), and base desires and quarrels and wars in this world – they are all due to lying, as Rabbi Nachman says: “The yetzer hara is created by the breath of the liar.”³ This world in its distorted form is the world of falsehood, and that is why it has not yet been rectified. And the tikkun (rectification) of the world is the revelation of truth, buttressing it, making sure that the whole world will come closer to truth and connect to it.  

And that is the holy task of the Jewish judges! 

Why do people come to be judged? To find out the truth. There are two sides here – truth and falsehood. It is possible one of the claimants did not deal fairly; in other words, he lied in his business dealings! The rectification of this is to raise the question before the judges, about whom we read in our parasha, parshat Shoftim. There should be judges everywhere and they must produce a just verdict without straying from the truth! 

That is why any dayan (judge) who gives a just verdict becomes a partner to Hashem in the creation of the world. Because the world’s very existence is truth: “Bereishit bara Elokim” (בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹקִ֑ים) – the last letter of each word makes up the word “emet” (אמת), as do the last letters of the words at the end of the story of creation – “bara Elokim la’asot” (ברא אלקים לעשות). 

You Wanted Truth 

But here is where the obvious question arises: How will the judge know who is telling the truth and who is lying? After all, the skill of the liar is to make one think that he is speaking the truth, and sometimes the liars are much more convincing than the truth-tellers. So how will the judge know to bring out the truth? It seems like an impossible task… 

Rabbi Natan of Breslev asks this wonderful question in his book, Likutei Halachot. And he answers, as usual, with the words of Rabbeinu in several places: The truth is the light of Hashem yitbarach Himself! The Creator of the World, Whose seal is truth – He and He alone is the source of truth. And indeed, flesh-and-blood creatures’ ability to recognize the truth is very limited, almost non-existent. 

Any spiritual light illuminates and shines on a person only according to this person’s longing and yearning and desire to experience this spiritual light. And even more so, the immense spiritual light which is the light of truth – the only way to acquire it is to wish for it with all one’s ability. David Hamelech, who judged the Jewish people, prayed: “Guide me in Your truth.” ⁵  “Send Your light and Your truth; they will guide me” ⁶ and there are more pesukim on the subject as well. 

When the dayan is a man of truth, and all his yearning is for truth, and he is careful with his speech, and comes to court completely clean of any bribery or personal inclination, caring neither for the good of the rich man nor for the good of the poor man, and in his personal life as well he takes the trouble to separate truth from falsehood and reach the pure and clear truth – only then does Hashem yitbarach Himself illuminate the judgment, and then the passuk, “Elokim stands in the Divine assembly” ¹  is fulfilled; in other words, Hashem is present in the court with the dayanim! And Hashem yitbarach surely knows the truth, and only from Him can a true verdict come, and therefore dayanim are called Elokim, because it is through them that Hashem’s truth is revealed in this world.  

That is why the dayanim are commanded at the beginning of the parasha, “Pursue justice, only justice.” ⁴ And so, the dayan must be not only blameless in his financial dealings but he should hate money; he should love truth so much that he will hate even money that comes to him lawfully. As the Gemara says, someone whose garment has been taken from him in the court of justice should come out singing and dancing, thanking Hashem and joyful over the truth being revealed and that he has been saved from the crime of stealing. 

Words of Peace and Truth 

This is relevant to each and every human being. Because Rabbeinu says in Likutei Moharan that a person who is forced into coming to court – this is a punishment for him, for not having dealt with his fellow man honestly. He did not see Hashem in his business dealings, and therefore naturally came to lie and cheat, and his punishment is to go to court and return to the truth. He sees the dayanim who want only the truth, and Hashem’s light of truth is revealed through them – so even when the dayanim make him pay, he is very happy, because the desire is that truth, and only truth – returns to him.  

And by truth one obtains peace! And therefore, the Gemara says that when Yitro advised Moshe to appoint judges, he said to him: “and all these people will be able to go home in peace.”⁷ The Gemara points out that it says “all these people” – even the ones that were told they are in the wrong, even those who lost their money. Because when the truth shines, a person is truly happy and feels the shalom – peace – in its meaning of sheleimut – wholeness. He feels that he lacks nothing. And therefore Chazal say that the world stands “on justice, on truth and on peace.” 

Restore our Judges 

And this is the deep point of advice that I gave that groom: Peace stands on truth: “Love the truth and the peace”! The Ramban brings in the name of Chazal: Truth is really peace, for it says, “At least peace and truth shall reign.” ²  In Sefer Hamiddot it says: “When there is truth, there is peace.” ³  And every Jew must educate himself and his children to stick to the midda of truth completely, and to pray and wish and constantly search for the truth. This is the key to all the blessings and salvations, because “The falsehood delays the salvation,” ³  and, conversely, “the truth saves from all troubles”, ³  and “through truth the world is protected from all damage”. ³ 

And just like peace in the home depends on truth, so too the Jewish People’s peace and their hold on the land depends on the truth, as the passuk says: “Pursue justice, only justice, so that you may live and possess the land.” ⁴ Rashi brings the Sifri here, which says: “The appointment of kosher judges can cause Yisrael to live and to settle in their land.” 

Nowadays we see with our own eyes how false, perverted justice weakens the Jewish people and our hold on the Land of Israel and increases the rifts and the hatred among the people. In the merit of achieving “Restore our judges as in earliest times,” with men of truth handing down verdicts of truth – we will have peace among Jews and we will win all the wars, as it says in Sefer Hamiddot: “He who makes sure not to lie, always wins.” ³ 

Editor’s Notes: 

¹ Tehillim (Psalms) 82:1 

² II Melachim (Kings) 20:19 

³ Sefer HaMiddot (in English: The Aleph-Bet Book), Emet (Truth) 

⁴ Devarim (Deuteronomy) 16:20 

⁵ Tehillim 25:5

⁶ Tehillim 43:3

⁷ Shemot (Exodus) 18:23