Jacob lived seventeen years
in the land of Egypt, so that the span of Jacob’s life came to one hundred and
forty-seven years. And when the time approached for Israel to die, he summoned
his son Joseph and said to him, “Do me this favor, place your hand under my
thigh as a pledge of your steadfast loyalty: please do not bury me in Egypt.
When I lie down with my fathers, take me up from Egypt and bury me in their
burial-place.” (Genesis 47:28-30)
It is
abundantly clear that Jacob’s primary concern is that he not be buried in Egypt. Accordingly, when Jacob dies, Joseph orders
the physicians of Egypt to embalm his father, a process that Torah reports
requires forty days to complete. We might think that Joseph has Jacob’s body
embalmed because this is Egyptian practice, but it is far more plausible that Jacob
will need to transport his father’s remains a long distance before interring
them in the Cave of Machpelah.
…when the wailing period was
over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s court, saying, “Do me this favor, and lay this
appeal before Pharaoh: ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die Be
sure to bury me in the grave which I made ready for myself in the land of
Canaan.” Now, therefore, let me go up and bury my father; then I shall return.”
And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you promise on oath.”
(Genesis 50:4-6)
Joseph
does not tell Pharaoh’s courtiers that Jacob was loathe to be buried in
Egypt—the full truth—but rather that he wished to be buried with his ancestors,
a partial truth. The real reason would have been an insult to Pharaoh and all
Egypt; the given reason is understandable and innocuous. Regardless, Joseph is
not entirely truthful with Pharaoh.
Torah
tells us of other lies that were told, not only without criticism, but
apparently with approval. God tells the first. And Sarah [eavesdropping on the conversation
between Abraham and the three angels who have come to announce the birth of
Isaac] laughed to herself, saying, “Now that I am withered, am I to have
enjoyment with my husband so old?” (Genesis
18:12) Sarah cannot imagine Abraham capable of siring a child. God
reports her words to Abraham rather differently: Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did
Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I in truth bear a child, old as I am?’” (Genesis 18:13) In God’s telling, Sarah’s concern is
her own capacity to conceive, not Abraham’s ability to impregnate. The midwives
in Egypt, Shifra and Puah, also lie. They tell Pharaoh that they have been
unable to comply with his command to kill the baby boys of the Israelites, “Because the
Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the
midwife can come to them, they have given birth” (Exodus 1:19).
Philosophers and theologians have long
argued whether lying is ever morally permitted or not. If the lie would benefit
the one who hears it, is it permissible? Do the intentions of the one uttering
the lie matter? Ought we apply the “Golden Rule” (“Do unto others…”) or Hillel’s
principle (“What is hateful to you…”)?
While Scripture generally lauds truth
telling, the Rabbis recognized that the realities and exigencies of life
require us to exert sound and sensitive judgment. Sometimes the moral road
involves bending the truth, avoiding the truth, and even outright lying.
Talmud
permits lying in the interest of peace, and provides three examples.
R. Ilai said in the name of
R. Elazar ben R. Shimon: It is permitted for a person to deviate from the truth
in the interest of peace, as it says (Genesis 50: 16-17): "Your father
[Jacob] commanded before his death, saying: So shall you say to Joseph, ‘O please
forgive the offense of your brothers and their sin for they have treated you so
wickedly.’"
R. Natan said: It is a
mitzvah [i.e., to lie in the interest of peace], as it says: And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul
hears of it, he will kill me” (I Samuel 16:2).
The School of R. Yishmael
taught: Great is the cause of peace, seeing that for its sake, even the Holy
One, blessed be God, changed the truth, for at first it is written, ‘My lord
[i.e., Sarah’s husband Abraham] is old,” (Genesis 18:12), while afterward it is
written "And I am old" (18:13). (BT Yebamot 65b)
The
first example, rather than citing Joseph’s lie to Pharaoh (which is clearly
intended to keep peace) curiously cites his brothers’ blatant lie and coercive
fabrication concerning what father Jacob said before he died. The Talmud next
cites God’s advice to the prophet Samuel to use the deception of a sacrifice to
conceal his true mission to anoint David as king in place of Saul. This is followed
by the example of God’s fudging of the truth for Abraham, which we mentioned
above. Perhaps most surprising is R. Natan’s view that there are times when one
is commanded—not just permitted—to lie. And indeed, this is confirmed in a
famous discussion in BT Ketubot 16b-17a concerning what one says about a bride.
The School of Shammai say we call ‘em as we see ‘em, but the School of Hillel
tell us that one always praises the bride as beautiful and graceful regardless of
objective reality.
Absolutists,
from Aristotle to Immanuel Kant have claimed that deviation from the truth is
never morally justifiable. Like the School of Shammai, they leave us no wiggle
room to employ our best judgment. While we can always know we are “right” by
never lying, the sensibilities and feelings of others may well be sacrificed on
the altar of smug self-righteousness. The absolute standard may simplify things
but that is not the same as improving things. Rabbinic tradition is replete
with stories of Sages who told lies, formulated ruses, and avoided the truth in
order to spare someone humiliation or hurt feelings. Sometimes we are trapped by
a question we are asked—surely this has happened to you—but the Rabbis even
considered the possibility that a lie created ex nihilo could have moral weight. I leave you with one more
marvelous and instructive teaching from the rabbinic imagination:
When two people quarreled, Aaron [the High Priest] went and sat
near one of them and said to him, “My son, do you see what your friend is
doing? He is beating his breast and rending his clothing saying, ‘Woe is me!
How can I even look at my friend? I am so ashamed of myself since I was the one
who offended him.’” Aaron would sit with him until he removed the hatred from
his heart. Aaron would then go and sit next to the other and say to him,
"My son, do you see what your friend is doing? He is beating his breast
and rending his clothing saying, ‘Woe is me! How can I even look at my friend?
I am so ashamed of myself since I was the one who offended him.’” Aaron would
sit with him until he removed the hatred from his heart. When the two met, they
would hug and kiss each other. (Avot de-Rabbi Natan 12:3)
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