Ehrlichkeit: Pursuing Emes from Beginning to End in an Olam HaSheker

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Shalom Aleichem, bruchim habaim. Today I'd like to talk about ehrlichkeit, honesty. What means ehrlich? What means emes? So in the pasuk in Parshas Shoftim, in the beginning, Tzedek, tzedek tirdof, l'maan tichyeh v'yarashta es haaretz asher Hashem Elokecha nosein lach. Tzedek, tzedek, a double lashon. Tzedek, tzedek, truth, righteous, honest. Tirdof, you need to run after the tzedek. Why a lashon of tirdof, and why the double lashon? And the pasuk continues that this is a condition, l'maan tichyeh v'yarashta es haaretz. Yerushas haaretz is dependent on this. Why? Why is yerushas haaretz dependent on tzedek, tzedek tirdof? Tzedek, tzedek, the double lashon. You know, there's a lot of things which are true, but yet there's some false in it also. Emes, which is false, and then there's sheker, which also has in it emes. For something to be emes, straight through, from the beginning to the end, thorough, through and through emes, that's called tzedek, tzedek. It's not just the truth. There's different types of truth. You know, people have a concept: the ends justify the means, which means if the end, I'm trying to bring out something emes, I'm trying to do something which is truthful, so even if I do it through a slanted way, it's okay, because that's not sheker; it's emes. The result, the kavana, the intention is emes. Yeah, but how did I get to that? Through sheker. That's not tzedek, tzedek tirdof. And then you have the reverse, where the emes is what you're going through to follow to something, but it's not for the right reasons. How many people will demand emes, yet for the wrong reasons? They're not truthful about why they're demanding the emes. Emes is complicated. Emes is unique, because if there's any sheker, then it's not emes. There's no din of bitul b'rov on emes and sheker. Sometimes when you have a little bit, a ta'aroves, you say bitul: bitul b'rov, bitul b'shishim. Could you have some emes, a bitl sheker? Then it's not emes. Tzedek, tzedek tirdof. You need a double tzedek, fully, real tzedek. Tzedek, tzedek, real full tzedek tirdof. Most people, they do things more or less for emes, but mixed into it might be sheker in things they say or intentions that they have. To be emes, like I always say, there's an expression, emes la'amitoi. I mean, if it's emes, then it's emes. What does it mean, emes la'amitoi? And it's obvious that there's something called emes which is not la'amitoi, the truth without the rightful pure intentions. Or sometimes you mean the truth, but you're getting to the truth not through emes. The ultimate emes is emes la'amitoi, truth thorough, fully true. We speak of the Rabbeinu Shleim's midah, the Rabbeinu Shleim is chosamo emes. The word chosamo could mean the stamp, or chosamo could also mean the conclusion. A lot of times we start off with emes, but we can't follow through. It gets lost to us. The emes gets lost to us along the way. Chosamo emes, which means that He's emes, and that the final stamp of everything that the—

Rabbeinu Shlolam does is emes. That's emes la'amito. Henishmas, we say, emes atah hu rishon v'atah hu acharon, u'mibaladecha ein lanu melech. Rosh Hashanah we say, emes atah hu rishon v'atah hu acharon. The Rabbeinu Shlolam is emes. What is emes rishon and emes atah hu acharon? You're the beginning and you're the end, which means, obviously, from the beginning of time to the end of time. Maybe we could say a beautiful raayon, a beautiful thought, pshat, in what it means emes atah hu rishon v'atah hu acharon, based on Reb Chaim Vital, that it translates what we say in Nishmas, Elohei harishonim v'ha'acharonim, Elohei hakol brios. The Rabbeinu Shlolam is the G-d from the earlier, and Elohei, the G-d, ha'acharonim from the later. Pashut it means from the earlier people. He is the Rabbeinu Shlolam, the Creator. He is the G-d from the earlier people v'ha'acharonim, as well as the later people and the later generations. Reb Chaim Vital explains that there's a deeper kavanah and deeper interpretation in Elohei harishonim v'ha'acharonim, that when the Rabbeinu Shlolam doesn't act, it's oisgecheshbent. It's thought out. It's oiskehalten. It follows through with truth and perfection from the beginning till the end. Which means, when we do something, we only have what's in front of us, what we did. We can only take responsibility for what we've just done. Do we know the teitzais, the outcome of what we— No, we ask the Eibishter that, Ribbono Shel Olam, please, the outcome should be good, but we can't take responsibility. There's no way for us to calculate and be responsible for what comes from our actions. The Ribbono Shel Olam, when He does an act, it's al yehei harishoinim v'achroinim from beginning till the end. In Yiddish and in Hebrew, mechushav. It's thought through, oiskegeshmacht, calculated, right, emes. Maybe that's also the pshat, emes atah harishoin v'atah hu acharoin, that the Ribbono Shel Olam's emes is from the beginning to the end, emes. Our emes, even if it is emes, sometimes it's not even emes at all. But even if we give you the benefit of the doubt, as they say, and there's emes, is it emes through and through? Is it emes from the beginning to the end? Does the emes that we start with, does it go through, follow through all the way to the end of our action, or we lose sight and we lose focus and it starts to wishy-waver, to shaker. Emes la'amitoi is difficult. It's against the fabric of Olam Hazeh and the fabric of Adam. The Rambam, when he discusses why should a Yid do mitzvahs, why are we frum? Ask anybody, excuse me, why are you frum? Why are you shomer Torah mitzvahs? And you get all types of answers. In the yeshiva, this is almost one of the tests. I like to give this as a test, and I ask, tell me why are you frum? Why are you keeping mitzvahs? And we get all interesting types of answers, what people have in their mind, why they keep mitzvahs. The Rambam, at the end of Hilchos Teshuva, tells us that the only reason to keep Torah mitzvahs is ha'emes l'man ha'emes, the truth for the sake of truth. What is the Rambam saying? I think the yesod that we spoke before. What I do is true, and my intentions are for the truth. Sometimes what I say and do is true, but for not the intentions of emes. And sometimes my intentions are emes, yet it's not.

What I'm doing is emes, or saying is not emes. Ha'emes l'man ha'emes is the emes of Yiddishkeit. It's the emes of a ben Torah, a shomer Torah u'mitzvos. His goal, his objection—what is his object of what he's trying to accomplish? What is his life's goal? Ha'emes l'man ha'emes, to reach somewhat a level of truth in what you do for the sake of truth, and now you've begun to do Torah u'mitzvos. So this is a very important thing: tzedek, tzedek. It's not just tzedek; it's tzedek, tzedek, tzedek within the tzedek, righteous within right, truth within truth. Because even the truth sometimes has in it non-truth. Sometimes it's from within, and sometimes the truth is covered with sheker. Sometimes it's external to the emes is the sheker, and sometimes it's bifnim, toich toich. And that's why tzedek, tzedek—the double lashon, tzedek, tzedek, dear doy. There was a person who wrote a sefer. He was very critical of gedolim and psakim of gedolim, a particular one gadol, and he was very learned, so his— A tax had some validity. This person went to take his sefer all around, to getting haskamah from different people, and one of those people was my zeide, Rav Shmuel Dov Walkin, zicher tzaddik livrachah. And my zeide looks at the sefer and he sees that it's a sefer of attack. Everything he attacks, he's attacking one particular gadol. So my zeide asked him, Why are you putting out this sefer? So the person responded with a conviction, L'maan ha'emes, for the sake of truth. My zeide asked him, In an olam ha'sheker? You're making a stand for emes in an olam ha'sheker? This is an olam ha'sheker, don't you know that? Alma d'shikra. In his wise way, b'chochmah, you know what my zeide was telling him? That's you. You think you're doing it l'maan ha'emes, but you don't know what emes is because we live in an alma d'shikra. The emes also sometimes is sheker. Sometimes what you're saying might be maybe some validity, but it's for the purpose, the sake of sheker. That's sheker. In an alma d'shikra, the emes becomes facade. It's very complicated to identify the true emes. That the person who's yelling l'man ha'emes could be the biggest shakran, and for the sake of the biggest sheker. I say there was bechachma, giving him tochachah mussar. L'man ha'emes! He's screaming. How many people scream, L'man ha'emes, and they do all types of things l'man ha'emes. Yet what is the real, the real story behind this emes? It's called a sheker. It's sheker l'man ha'sheker. And in an olam d'shikra, in a world of dishonesty, this is a big nisayon. This is a difficult task: to identify the truth, to identify the truth. Everyone's searching for the truth, and everyone's claiming they have the truth, and everyone is demanding that they are the owners of truth. Yet unfortunately, in an olam d'shikra, it can be completely off. Sheker turns into emes. There's a beautiful mashal from the Ben Ish Chai. I once heard a beautiful mashal that the Ben Ish Chai said: this world of olam d'shikra could be parable to a story of a dayan.

Who paskens dinei choshen mishpat, laws of conflict between man and man of money, money matters. And one such din Torah, it was pretty obvious. Let's call them Reuven and Shimon. Reuven was definitely supposed to lose the din Torah. Shimon was fully in the right, and it was pretty obvious for everyone that Shimon would be the victor in the din Torah. Reuven figures, maybe I'll try a little bit, you know, maneuvering to talk to the dayan somehow to get him to swing it my way, to give the din Torah to me, that I should be the victor, I should win the din Torah. So he turns to the dayan and he says, Dayan, maybe there's something we could, you know, work out under the table, maybe something, you know. The dayan thinks to himself, I do dinei Torah. I never hardly ever get paid. I have a family full of children. I can't pay my rent. Yom Tov is coming, etc., etc. This one time, this one time we'll make an exception. So he tells him, If you give me something under the table, I'll swing the din Torah. I'll swing the din Torah your way. The person was very happy. So the dayan instructs him, The morning of the psak, that we're supposed to give the psak halacha, you'll take an envelope, and you'll put in a good check over there for me. You'll wave the check. Keep on putting it out of it in your pocket, you know. You'll show me, and I'll swing the din— the entire year away, even though there is no chance that you should have won this din Torah. I'll do it. And he's thinking, all right, one time, and it's not my, you know, I can't help it. I have Yom Tov coming, and it's all the meir heter. And so it was the morning of the din Torah. The psak is supposed to come, and everyone is, you know, convinced Shimon, of course Shimon is supposed to win. It's pretty obvious. Reuven owes him the money. Reuven takes the envelope a few times out of his, you know, pocket, moving around the envelope, making his eyes. And the Dayan swings the din Torah towards Reuven, and Reuven wins. And everyone is shocked. What could have happened? Little do they know, the envelope, right? The envelope. They say goodbye. They're passing by to thank the Dayan, and Reuven, under the table, slips the envelope to the Dayan. The Dayan takes it, and he tells him a goodbye with a warm, a warm tzeischem l'shalom, a warm Yom Tov he gives him. The Dayan quickly runs to his back room, to the chambers in the back, and excitingly he opens up the envelope. And to his astonishment, what's in the envelope? Nothing. He begins to yell, Oy la'ma sheker! Take a look how dishonest this world we live in. Yeah, it's you. This is the— Problem with emes and sheker. We're so wrapped up in sheker that we don't even know the emes. This world is all sheker. It's all facade. It's all chitzoni. And therefore, we almost can't recognize the truth. Tirdof might mean you got to run after it because it's elusive. Tzedek, tzedek tirdof. It's elusive because this world is alma d'shikra. I'd like to share with you a Sfas Emes: V'yarashta es ha'aretz l'maan tichyeh. You will live if you have tzedek, tzedek tirdof l'maan tichyeh v'yarashta es ha'aretz. Why is yerushas ha'aretz a condition, if you say the truth? Says Sfas Emes, it's not referring to ha'aretz, this world. It's going v'yarashta ha'aretz, Olam Haba, l'maan tichyeh in the next world, in Olam Haba, because emes is in Olam Haba. You create your Olam Haba if you're honest in this world. You are destined to Olam Haba because in this world, your schar is not a big, as they say, it's not...

Honest? What, are you crazy? That's what it says. It's not a commodity in this world. It's only for the next world. It's not referring to L'manticha v'yarashes aretz, Eretz Yisrael, but rather it's referring, says Sfas Emes, Yerushas aretz and Olam Haba, which we know in Chazal it's called Olam HaDiksheit, the world of truth, which today we call Olam HaEmes. It's in the Olam HaEmes, L'manticha v'yarashta. The Medrash tells us that when HaKadosh Baruch Hu wanted to create the world, Emes got up and complained, protested. Emes protested: Sheker, the whole world is sheker. I have no place, and therefore I have no place in this world, because Emes is not a commodity here. Don't create the world. Olam shekulo sheker. Midas Emes says, Don't create the world. The Ribono Shel Olam wanted to create this world, so He takes the midas Emes and He throws it to the floor. And when the Emes was thrown to the side on the floor, the Ribono Shel Olam went and created the world. Al zeh ne'emar, Medrash says that's the pasuk: Emes me'eretz titzmach. The Emes from the ground, it will sprout, because where is the Emes? It was thrown to the ground. What is the mashal and nimshal? What is the parable? What is the lesson of Emes to the ground? What's the point? Emes was thrown to the ground. It was pushed aside. No, it says it was pushed. Suppressed to the ground, me'eretz. So I always wanted to say pshat, because everyone steps on the emes. It's on the floor because everyone's stepping on it. So that's what it means, emes me'eretz titzmach. Kotzk. Says the Chassidic, levrachah, chus yagen aleinu, Kotzk says, you know, everyone is searching for the truth, and everyone's claiming that they want the truth. It's very simple. What are you searching for? We know where it is. It's on the ground. Chazal told us it's on the ground, so go. It's right there. What are you searching? Everyone's searching for the truth. V'zuchta, sidat nafneld. That's where it is. Says the Kotzker, yeah, but you have to bend to get it. Nobody wants to bend. We know where it is. It takes bending. It takes bending that you got to bend to have truth. Truth is not going to be easy. It takes shviras hamidos. It's a mindset that you got to search it, because it ain't going to come easy. It's not going to come easy. Tirdaif. You have to run after it. I would like to add another pshat: emes me'eretz titzmach. Emes me'eretz titzmach. In the ground is olam ha'emes. Above this world, above the ground, you're not going to find any emes. When a person is, lo aleinu, six feet under. That's emes. Reb Chaim Ozer. A very famous story, the great gaon Reb Chaim Ozer. Brilliance of Reb Chaim Ozer in this story. Two people came in front of Reb Chaim Ozer fighting over a piece of land. Reuven claims, It's my land. Shimon says, Nope, it's mine, the land, and they're fighting between themselves. Simainerd, mainerd, nein, simainer, mainerd, and they're fighting cats and dogs. Whose erd, whose earth is it? Reb Chaim Ozer suddenly falls to the floor, and he lays his head towards the floor, and they thought maybe something happened, maybe he collapsed, and he begins to laugh, head, ear towards the ground, laughing. So they asked him, Rebbe, are you okay? He says, Yeah, I'm fine. What happened? He says, Something very funny happened, and that's why I'm laughing. You, Reuven, taina, the erd is deine, it's yours. Shimon here is saying that the land...

is his. I listened to the land. You know what the land said? Soon both of them will be mine. Rabosai, life is short. There's an olam ha'emes. There's a world which is truth. Emes me'eretz titzmach. Unfortunately, you know, life speeds by us, and then the emes, as you get older, you realize what emes is and what sheker. I would like to explain, with the above, all the hemshech, the pesukim and the halachos around tzedek, tzedek tirdof. The pasuk before tzedek, tzedek tirdof is lo sata mishpat, lo takir panim, v'lo sikach shochad, ki hashochad ye'aver einei chachamim v'yesalef divrei tzaddikim. Shochad is not only in the Torah. Shochad is in life. Our retzonos is also shochad. It also is a bribe. It takes us away from emes because we're blinded by what we want, and therefore we don't see the truth. The anti-emes is shochad, the shochad of olam hazeh, this world, the glamour, the ambitions, and therefore we don't see the truth. It's only as we get older and our bodies get weaker and we get torn and worn from life and life situations. We start getting closer to the truth, because the sheker starts to dissipate. If you notice the pasuk after Tzadik, Tzadik, Tirdof, Lo sita lecha asheirah kol eitz, eitzel mizbach Hashem Elokecha. You're not allowed to make an asheirah, a tree, next to the mizbeach. Pashut, it means in the Beis Hamikdash. A lot of times people read the pasuk, they don't realize that the pashut pshat is no trees in the Beis Hamikdash. Why not? So I once saw a beautiful pshat: no landscapes. The Beis Hamikdash doesn't need landscape. It doesn't need beautiful trees. Why? Because that's external, and external is sheker. And when you come to the Beis Hamikdash, you need to see the penimius, its true essence from within, what's real, and not what's external, which is taking the eye, catching the eye. Olam, the world we live in is helem. It's all a facade, and it catches our eye, and it takes us away from focusing on what's real and what's true. The Beis Hamikdash was emes. The Beis Hamikdash was mekor of taharah. You don't need landscapes to see its yofi. And I thought it was a beautiful pshat because it's pashut. People fatayched for different things, but l'choirah this is the taych, pashut. Beis Hamikdash was not allowed to have trees. Lo sita lecha asheirah eitzel mizbach Hashem Elokecha. And if you look at these sefarim, I found the sefarim that seems to say exactly this yesod: trees are a chitzoniyusdike yofi. Landscape, it's beautiful. It catches the eye, but it's not necessarily the beauty of the Beis Hamikdash. The Beis Hamikdash had inner yofi. It didn't have sheker hachen; it had a la yofi. Ish yiras Hashem, the pnimiyus. We live in an external world. Olam hachitzoni. Look at the Sippurim, it's beautiful. He says the asheira catches the eye. It's a beautiful tree. Lo sita lecha asheira eitz el mizbecha, mizbeach. The pnimi, the truth, the ish yiras Hashem, hi tisalal. Reb Chaim Brisk says a beautiful pshat. Reb Chaim Brisk explains, lo sita lecha asheira, the Gemara tells us in Sanhedrin this is referring to dayan she'eino dan din emes. He's a dayan, yet he doesn't pasken true dinei Torah. Tzadik, tzadik tirdof. This dayan is not running after the truth; he's being rodef the truth. Tzadik, tzadik. He's fataching the pasuk a little differently.

Tzedek, tzedek tirdof, that you should be rodef the tzedek. Now, tirdof means to run after, not to be rodef the, to be rodef after. And this dayan is not doing it. Says Reb Chaim, what does that have to do with lo sitalcha asheirah? Why is this analogy, this talmid chacham who's done din she'eino emes, why is it an analogy to the asheirah? Says Reb Chaim something very brilliant. There's an avodah zarah, but you could tell it's an avodah zarah. It has eyes, einayim לו ולא יראו, has einayim לו ולא יאזינו. Every avodah zarah, you see it's an avodah, it's a geshka. The asheirah is misleading. The asheirah is a tree, and it seems beautiful. Trees are beautiful, the Ribono Shel Olam is beautiful, yet what? In its essence, it's an asheirah. It's an avodah zarah. The dayan externally seems like a meyudiker dayan, with a long beard. He speaks in learning. He comes across chashuv, yet within he's rotten. So he's like the asheirah. Lo sita lecha asheirah eitz, l'mizbach Hashem Elokecha. In ruchniyus we have this problem, where the external catches our attention, and the internal nobody's that interested in, to see the essence of something, the truth. I mean, there's an expression, the true essence, truth, because you need truth to see essence. We live in a world which is external. I would like to say, according to this, maybe another pshat. And why its emes was thrown to the ground, and its emes me'eretz titzmach. It's like a seed. Titzmach means that it's in the ground, literally. It's not in the ground, on the ground. It's in the ground. Lichluch. There's dirt that covers, and you can't see it. When you put a seed into the ground, you don't see it. It's covered with dirt. In this world, the emes is covered, and dirt is being thrown on it, but it's me'eretz titzmach. It will sprout with all the dirt you try to cover on it. Gedolah Yisrael throughout the generations were maligned, ridiculed. They were neirdaf. Yet the kernel of truth in their words lay dormant till one day it sprouts out, and the world rejoices in their words and gives honor to the author of those words. In this world, for some reason, this is the chushban d'Rachmana, that the world buries the truth. You have an expression, The truth is buried. That's the taich. It's not me'eretz. It's not that it was thrown on top. It's thrown in the ground, and it's buried deep. But one day, titzmach, it will sprout. With this, I think we could say, and come back to the pshat of Tirdof. Why Tirdof? And the answer is, even when you start with tzedek. It eludes you. It escapes. Somehow the yetzer hara finds a way to reroute you off path from emes. All things start off with a good emes, with a good perspective, objective. You want the truth. The question is, could you follow it from the beginning to the end? Chosomo emes is the final, is the stamp, is an emes. It's very hard, and that's the pshat, Tzadik, tzadik, tirdof, because it's going to run from you, and you need to run after it to retrieve it. And this is part of the alma d'shikra. As the world revolves, so does the emes, and it's speeding away, away, away. And the avodah is search the truth, run after the truth. You run after it. You work hard enough at it, you will achieve it, and that's the Tzadik, tzadik, tirdof. Erlachkeit, erlachkeit, erlachkeit. Yerashtes ha'aretz v'yorash olam haba for it. Man creates with his emes.

His eternal, his dwelling in emes in olam haemes and olam haba. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.