[Avodah] The Pursuit of Truth: Thoughts on Parashat Lekh Lekha, November 5, 2011

[Prof. Levine]

 From http://www.jewishideas.org/print/783

By Rabbi Marc D. Angel

Some years ago, I had a conversation with a 
Hassidic Jew who assured me that his Rebbe never 
committed any sins. He stated with certainty that 
his Rebbe was endowed with a grand and holy soul, 
far superior to the soul of any other people.

When I pointed out to him that even Moses 
committed sins, he flatly denied that this was 
so. I reminded him that the Torah itself reports 
Moses’s shortcomings. He said: You do not 
understand the Torah! It is impossible that Moses 
could have done anything wrong. He was perfect in every way.

The conversation came to an end, with both of us 
unhappy with the result. He felt I did not 
demonstrate enough faith in the perfection of 
saintly personalities, and I felt he was guilty 
of distorting the Torah’s words and distorting 
the reality of the human condition.

This conversation came to mind recently when I 
received an email from a colleague, in which he 
included some important passages by Rabbi Samson 
Raphael Hirsch. The comments related specifically 
to stories reported in Parashat Lekh Lekha­but 
Rabbi Hirsch’s point is of general relevance to 
our study of Torah
and to our evaluation of saintly individuals.

The Torah relates various problematic narratives 
about Abraham.  For example, when going to Egypt, 
Abraham feared that the Egyptians would murder 
him and take his wife Sarah. Abraham told Sarah 
to say she was his sister, rather than his wife. 
In spite of (or because of!) this deception, 
Sarah was taken to Pharaoh. Abraham was given 
rewards and he thrived in Egypt. When God 
punished Pharaoh and when Pharaoh realized that 
Sarah was really Abraham’s wife, Pharaoh 
expressed outrage to Abraham over the deception. 
Pharaoh expelled Abraham and Sarah, who left Pharaoh’s domain with much wealth.

This story surely does not cast Abraham in a good 
light. He asked his wife to participate in a 
deception. He let his wife be taken by the 
Egyptians. He reaped financial rewards while his 
wife was in captivity in Pharaoh’s house.

Rabbi Hirsch makes a profoundly important point: 
“The Torah does not attempt to hide from us the 
faults, errors and weaknesses of our great men, 
and precisely thereby it places the stamp of 
credibility upon the happenings it relates. The 
fact that we are told about their faults and 
weaknesses does not detract from our great men. 
Indeed, it adds to their stature and makes their 
life stories even more instructive. Had they all 
been portrayed to us as models of perfection we 
would have believed that they had been endowed 
with a higher nature not give to us to attain. 
Had they been presented to us free of human 
passions and inner conflicts, their nature would 
seem to us merely the result of a loftier 
predisposition, not a product of their personal 
merit, and certainly no model we could ever hope to emulate.”

Rabbi Hirsch goes on to say that “we must never 
attempt to whitewash the spiritual and moral 
heroes of our past. They are not in need of our 
apologetics, nor would they tolerate such 
attempts on our part. Truth is the seal of our 
Word of God, and truthfulness is the distinctive 
characteristic also of all its genuinely great teachers and commentators.”

Our great biblical heroes, as well as our great 
spiritual heroes of all generations, were real 
human beings, not plaster saints.  They had real 
feelings, real conflicts. Many times they 
performed admirably; on some occasions they fell 
short.  To suggest that anyone is 
“perfect”­totally devoid of sin and error­is to 
misrepresent that person and to misrepresent truth.

There is a popular genre of “religious 
literature” that presents biographies of biblical 
and later religious luminaries as paragons of 
virtue, totally devoid of sin and inner conflict. 
In fact, such books are not authentic 
biographies, because they describe their heroes 
in an untruthful way. These personalities are 
drawn in such superlative terms, that readers 
will find it exceedingly difficult to identify with them or to emulate them.

There is an opposite tendency in some circles to 
point to every flaw and sin of our spiritual 
heroes, and to undermine their credibility as 
religious models. Our prophets and teachers are 
presented as though devoid of higher spiritual and moral qualities.

Just as it is false to overstate the perfection 
of our heroes, so it is false to undervalue their 
spiritual achievements. Rather, we must study 
their lives honestly, recognizing that these are 
remarkable individuals who reached great 
heights­and who had to struggle mightily to 
attain their levels of religious insight and 
righteousness.  Their failings can be as instructive to us as their successes.

Just as Truth is the seal of the Word of God, so 
is the pursuit of Truth the proper objective of 
all students of Torah and Jewish tradition.

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