A White Lie

The “stamp,” or signature of G-d is emet (truth). How do we know this? From a Midrash (Bereishit Rabba 8:5). “R’ Simon says, when G-d came to create Adam HaRishon, the angels split into different sects, groups. Some angels said ‘Don’t create him’ and others said ‘create him’. Chesed said ‘create him because man does chesed’. Emet said ‘don’t create him because man is full of lies’.

What did G-d do? He took emet and threw it to the ground, as it says in the pasuk “And He cast emet to the ground” (Daniel 8:12). The angels said “G-d, how can You humiliate Your signature so. Raise emet back up from the ground,” as it says in the pasuk “Emet will grow from the earth” (Tehillim 85:12).

It is not coincidence that G-d’s signature is truth. Truth is never polarized and onesided, instead it encompasses a wide spectrum of views, as is shown by the actual letters that make up the word emet – one letter from the beginning of the alphabet (Aleph), one letter from the middle (Mem) and the third letter from the end (Tav). As opposed to the word sheker (lie), where all the letters are on one side of the alphabet (Shin, Kuf, Reish).

The word emet also has a special connection to the number 9. The gematria of emet is 441. If you add up the digits of that number (gematria ktana), 4+4+1 = 9.

The number 9 is a special, “magic” number in nature. If you take any multiple of 9 and add its digits, you get 9. For example, 18: 1+8=9. 27: 2+7=9. 36: 3+6=9, 45: 4+5=9. 513: 5+1+3=9. 9243: 9+2+4+3=18, 1+8=9, etc.

Similarly, if you take any (positive) number above 9, no matter how large and subtract from it the sum of its digits, and finally add the digits of the result – you get 9. For example, 613. The sum of the digits of 6+1+3=10. Subtract 10 from 613 and you get 603. 6+0+3=9. Let’s try another example, the number 1,459,872. The sum of its digits is 1+4+5+9+8+7+2=36. 1,459,872 – 36 = 1,459,836. The sum of the digits of the result 1+4+5+9+8+3+6=36, 3+6 =9. Try it yourself on any other number!

The number 9 has this special property, unlike any other number, because 9, emet, is the stamp of G-d.

Everything about G-d embodies emet. It is not surprising therefore that the Torah forbids lying (Shemot 23:7). This is all straightforward and well known.

What I would like to ask then is “How is it possible that the brothers LIED to Yosef and worse, their lie is written in the Torah – right here in our parsha?!!”

The brothers said to Yosef, (Bereishit 50:16-17) above, “Before his death Yaakov your father commanded us to say to you – please forgive your brothers’ sin, etc.” Rashi, quoting the Gemara (Yevamot 65b), says that this was all a fabrication and that Yaakov never said any such thing! The brothers were afraid that now that Yaakov had died, Yosef was waiting for that opportunity to take his revenge on them for selling him to slavery in Egypt.

There is no question that they lied, but incredibly, the Gemara above says that they were right to lie because there is a special circumstance when one is permitted to lie and that is to make peace, what is known in English as a “white lie.” R’ Natan takes this one step further and says that not only is it permissible in such a case to lie, but it is a mitzvah!

In fact, the example above in our parsha is not the first time a “white lie” appears in the Torah, there are others. Avraham and Yitzchak told a “white lie” saying that their wives Sarah and Rivka were their sisters and not their wives. Yaakov told his father a “white lie” in order to get Eisav’s blessing.

Even more incredible, we have examples of G-d Himself telling a “white lie.” When the angel Michael told Sarah she would give birth to Yitzchak aged 90, Sarah laughed and said it is impossible “For I have passed childbearing age and my master (Avraham) is old” (Bereishit 18:12). G-d, in the following pasuk, relates what Sarah said to Avraham “G-d said to Avraham, why did Sarah laugh saying, how can I give birth now that I am old.” But that is not what Sarah said. Sarah said that Avraham was old. When G-d tells Avraham what Sarah said, He tells Avraham that Sarah was saying about herself that she was old, in order to preserve peace.

Aharon HaKohen was a great proponent of this technique. The Midrash says that when Aharon saw two people, Reuven and Shimon, fighting with one another, he would go visit Reuven at his home and say “I have just been at Shimon’s home and he is very distressed that the two of you are fighting and he wants to make up.” Aharon would then go to Shimon’s house and say the same thing to him about Reuven. It was all a fabrication. Neither Reuven nor Shimon really had remorse, but by telling this white lie to both sides, Aharon managed to make peace between them.

Peace is such a vital cornerstone of the world that G-d is willing to forego His “stamp,” His signature, in order that peace may prevail.

Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: What was Yaakov’s punishment for saying to Pharaoh “Few and troubled were the years of my life (Bereishit 47:9)”?

Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: Why did Yosef send back gifts to his father Yaakov in ox-drawn wagons? It was a hint to Yaakov and a proof that it was truly him. Before the brothers sold Yosef into slavery, Yosef and Yaakov were studying the subject of Egla Arufa, the case when a dead body is discovered in the open area between two cities. Egla in English is an ox.