{"id":50099,"date":"2019-07-18T13:55:58","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T19:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=50099"},"modified":"2019-07-18T13:55:58","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T19:55:58","slug":"lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/lies\/","title":{"rendered":"Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40581 size-thumbnail lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-350x350.jpg 350w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40581 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-350x350.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a>According to 18<sup>th<\/sup> century philosopher Immanuel Kant, \u201cBy a lie, a man\u2026 annihilates his dignity as a man.\u201d Kant\u2019s contemporary, Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz taught: \u201cHabitual liars have an inclination to idol worship and heresy, for truth and faith embrace one another.\u201d In <em>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn<\/em>, Mark Twain echoed Rabbi Pinchas: \u201cYou cain\u2019t pray a lie!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Torah anticipated these writers, insisting, <em>Mi-Dvar Sheker Tirchak<\/em> \u2013 \u201cKeep far from a false matter\u201d (Exodus 23:7). This Commandment reflects a deep appreciation of human nature\u2026 and our frailties. It is insufficient to avoid brazen, bald-faced, outright lies. We are to \u201ckeep far\u201d from such offenses. To omit or to spin the truth\u2026 to allow or to facilitate misunderstanding\u2026 to tolerate deceit and duplicity without protesting\u2026 all these run afoul of the Torah\u2019s sweeping mandate for truth.<\/p>\n<p>While lies are pernicious in our personal interactions, they can be especially damaging when perpetrated by those in positions of leadership\u2026 and when countenanced (or defended) by their constituents. \u201cPublic confidence in the integrity of the Government,\u201d said Adlai Stevenson, \u201cis indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just as we keep our distance from lies, we wisely keep our distance from liars.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the rabbi of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey and the National Chaplain of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting.)<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Lies\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9415],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50100,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50099\/revisions\/50100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}