To uncover new truths and hidden meanings

Note: At Temple Micah, every b’nai mitzvah student gets to ask their rabbi a question of their own choosing to be answered by the rabbi as part of their sermon the morning of the b’nai mitzvah. This is one of those sermons.

Dear Nora,

Today you add your link in our chain of tradition -

Here at Temple Micah, you do this in several ways:

You read Torah and Haftarah

You teach us, with your own understandings and interpretations

And you pose a question -

And I respond - with a letter - shared here.

Nora, you asked me, "Why is it important to question what we know and to seek knowledge?"

I’m first going to answer in the style of our tradition, with a parable, from an ancient Rabbi, Rabbi Shimon.

He taught:

When God was about to create the first human being, there was disagreement about whether Adam should be created.

The ministering angels split into contending groups. Some said, “let him be created!” while others cried “Let him not be created!” …

The angel of Mercy said, “let him be created, for he will do merciful deeds.”

The angel of Truth responded, “let him not be created, for he will lie.”

The angel of Righteousness said, “Let him be created, for he will do righteous deeds.”

The angel of Peace said, “Let him not be created, for he will never cease quarreling.”

God looked at the four angels and what did the Holy One do, God took the angel of Truth and cast her into the ground, hiding her deep within the earth, for God knew that it would be far too dangerous for her to dwell on earth among humanity.

This parable the human story begins with a search for truth -

If truth is buried deep within earth

Then perhaps - our purpose as humans is to seek truth -

And then to lift it up

And to not run away from its light when we are in the presence of real truth

In fact, Nora, your own Torah portion touches on this -

When Moses is being instructed in the kind of leader to choose -

It is not the most effective, or strong, or wise

But “Anshe Emet” People of truth

So why do we question?

Why is questioning such an integral part of Judaism?

Why must we constantly and continually seek knowledge?

Because to be a Jew is to be a Rodef Emet

A seeker of truth - in order to become a person of truth

But Nora-

It is easier than ever to simply accept something as fact or truth without questioning it

We are in a crisis of truth -

We live in the era of the “big lie”

When you say something so ludacris enough times that it can become almost believable

Because how could you lie about something so large?

In a country that was founded on the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident”

The truth is no longer evident,

As written by Drs. Wendy Zierler and Joshua Garaway, in the book they co-edited, “These Truths we Hold: Judaism in an age of truthiness”

“Brazen lying and deception have become routine in public life…the highest of public officials look straight into a camera and lie, and lie, and lie over again;...social media is abound with fake descriptions of events designed intentionally to deceive; [and] professional media aim more to craft narratives to entertain their self-selecting partisan audiences than to “get down to the facts.”

It is harder than ever to know the truth - if she was buried on earth -

Then we have piled the sediment and trash on top

And yet the search must continue -

Questioning, Nora, ensures that we do not simply accept something to be true.

There are those who will tell you that there is no real, capital “T” truth

That this is all a game -

The search for knowledge and truth that we lift up, Nora, diagrees.

The search for truth, by questioning, and gaining knowledge, is just that. It is a search - a process - with an end that is not fully attainable

In Zierler and Garroway’s words, “It was Clarence Darrow who said, “Chase after the truth like all hell and you’ll free yourself, even though you’ll never touch its coattails. It seems Jewish tradition would agree: the truth is real, and warrants are admiration and aspiration, even as we recognize that absolute adherence is ultimately beyond our grasp.”

The truth is buried so deeply, Nora, it can be easy to ignore it

To think that it doesn’t exist

And the truth is so complex - made up of so many faces of truth

That it can be easy to claim yours as the “right one” - the truest truth

And we allow ourselves to be convinced into our own certainty

As Rabbi Donniel Hartman describes it. “The certainty that I have the truth and others do not, he writes. The certainty that I am right and others wrong…The hubris of certainty [that] allows one to shun and shame those who do not share in the truth as you know it.”

The act of questioning ensures that we do not commit the hubris of certainty

That even for the things we believe -

We constantly question -

Not to drive ourselves into insanity - or to close any gaps or loopholes to close

But in fact, to find them

To find others truths within them

And to find out our own lies and falsehoods

And get to know them so that we can understand what they look like

So that we can see when lies are being perpetuated by others

And call them out as lies - not because they contradict our truth

But because they contradict the truth - or as best as we have approximated it

The act of questioning is a gift - if certainty is hubris,

Doubt, in the words of our teacher, Rabbi Larry Hoffman, is a blessing

Because the search for truth - the act of one question -

Leads to new questions - questions of meaning

Rabbi Hoffman gives the example of Hanukkah -

When the Rabbis of the start their discussion of how and when to celebrate Hanukkah , they ask a question of truth-seeking

“Mai Hanukkah” - What is Hanukkah - what is it all about? Where did it come from?

And ultimately, their exploration leads them to an exploration that goes beyond the facts, beyond one kind of truth, into a new kind of truth

One that is represented by the game of meaning-

In his words, "What is Chanukah [in the first place]," a question that is nothing if not a search for truth, and they buttress their rules [how and when to light candles] with a further truth: the purpose of lighting them is l’farsomei nissa, “to publicize the miracle.”

This represents a different kind of truth, Nora, a spiritual truth -

One that hints towards deep meaning

These two types of truth sit beside each other

Both emerge out of questions - and each one is no less true -

Even as one answer is derived from historical memory and the other from a deeper sense of faith and meaning

Jewish texts are full of these kinds of examples -

The Talmud has tens of thousands of questions - very few answers -

But a lot of truths that emerge from its rabbis and stories

Torah similarly features questions - most often unanswered

Ayekah - the first human is asked - where are you, what is your purpose?

The question was not asked of Adam as a factual question but as a way to help Adam explore his own truth

Who is he - what and where is he - and what is his purpose?

Similarly - questions from the Torah still help us explore these kinds of truth for ourselves

Am I my brother’s keeper? - In Torah it is unanswered - it is up to us to take on the charge of answering, over and over again, yes. Yes.

Will the Judge of the whole land not do justice? - Abraham interrogates when God is contemplating destroying an entire city.

Our inheritance is questioning

But it is also in answering with the truths of our lives

And digging, digging to uncover that truth buried deep beneath the earth

To be a Jew is to search for truth even when no one cares

To speak that truth even if no one will listen

To seek facts and to seek meaning - and to understand the difference

To be one of the Anshe Emet - the people of truth -

Who will not lie or distort truth

This is important now, more than ever.

It is your inheritance - and your responsibility.

To ask questions - even unanswerable, unknowable ones

And to allow those questions to lead you to unexpected places of truth

To embrace the blessing of doubt, and reject the hubris of certainty.

To uncover new truths and hidden meanings

And above all - to seek truth, and be truthful.

Mazel tov, Again, Nora.

Your friend,

Rabbi Crawley