WhatsappToday is my English birthday. On my Hebrew birthday last week, I wished that people would be more respectful towards one another, especially in their online comments regardless of disagreements. Today, I have a wish about pursuing truth.
This time I want to begin with a little dvar Torah (words of Torah) from my Bar-Mitzvah parsha that I just read on Shabbat, Parshat Toldot.
My full name is Avi Yaakov/Jacob. My middle name of Yaakov/Jacob is my being named after my late grandfather, my father’s father, as well as my Biblical “grandfather”, Jacob.
In the Torah, G-d tells us that he gave “truth to Jacob” – תתן אמת ליעקב, telling us that Jacob represents “truth”. Sounds wonderful. Jacob is a real role model of truth.
However, on the face of it, it makes no sense. Jacob’s life was full of deceit, the farthest thing away from the truth. He bribed his brother to receive the birthright. He tricked his father to receive a blessing that was supposed to be given to his brother. He tricked his father-in-law Lavan into getting paid etc.
How can G-d say that Jacob is the paradigm of “truth” if his life is filled with acts of deceit?
This is an issue that I have grappled with all of my life.
As with everything in life, context is key!!
Jacob’s mother, Rebecca, came from a house and a family upbringing of deceit, greed and lies. We know this because of the interactions her family had with Abraham’s servant upon meeting her, and from when her brother, Lavan, deceived Jacob countless of times while Jacob lived and worked for him. Yet, Rebecca was a beautiful and giving soul, despite that upbringing and environment.
That is the life experience that she brought with her to the marriage with Yitzchak, a pure person, sheltered all of his life, overshadowed by his larger-than-life father, who had a direct relationship with G-d!
Yitzchak was a man without a bad or deceitful bone in his body and that’s the type of life and values that Rebecca wanted for her family as well. Yet she wanted to prepare her son, Jacob, for the real world, how to be the best person he could be in a world full of deceit and evil, some qualities which she already saw in her other son Esav. Hence, while Rebecca taught Jacob to live a life of truth, she also taught him how and when to deal with evil and deceit in the world, which sometimes meant that he himself had to use deceit.
I’m not going into the moral issue at the moment. The point of these words of the Torah is to understand that our world around us is a world of lies and deceit. The only one true thing in the universe is the existence of G-d himself. We have to strive to be the best and most truthful people that we can, understanding that there is plenty of lies and deceit all around us on a daily basis. Whether a vendor in a store who lies, a business transaction that doesn’t get paid, a child who lies, a spouse who lies, politicians who lie, or an agenda-driven media that lies.
That is reality.
The question is not whether that is reality or not, the question is what do we do now? How do we deal with this reality?
Jacob was designated by G-d as a paradigm of truth because he struggled with deceit and evil all his life, and he overcame it all to live a life of truth. Whether the deceitful things he did himself were morally correct or not is irrelevant. It is the fact that he succeeded in overcoming the harsh reality of a deceitful world, surrounded by deceitful or evil people, to be a good person and live a life of truth. Hence, Jacob is a paradigm of truth, overcoming evil, and a role model for us all.
As my namesake, I’m a believer in constantly striving for truth and living a life of truth. Sometimes I may be wrong, but I learn, listen, question and try to get to the truth. I’m fortunate enough not to have yet encountered similar experiences as Jacob as to have had to deceive others, but I stand up for what I believe to be true, even if “virtually everyone” disagrees with me. Yes, someone countered one of my recent posts with that claim.
Here is the thing. 20+ years ago, before the age of social media, I was out in the streets protesting against the Oslo Accords that made “peace” with Arafat and his band of terrorists. I was screaming at the top of my lungs and telling everyone I could that it would be a disaster, that it would bring more terror and push peace further away. However, all the “experts” at the time, together with slick “peace-loving” politicians, Jewish “leaders” in the US, and the media establishment pushed a narrative that it would bring “peace in our time” and that we religious, right-wing extremists were the enemies of peace by protesting against it.
Let’s fast forward a decade to 2005 and the Gaza expulsion (aka “disengagement”). I was out in the streets protesting and blogging about how horrible it would be. Back then I was telling everyone I could that not only would it be a disaster for the innocent people of Gush Katif, but it would be a disaster for Israel, bringing more terror, rockets and bloodshed, and a disaster for world Jewry leading to a rise in antisemitism around the world. Why? Because I believed then, as I believe now, that when the world sees the Jewish state of Israel destroying Jewish homes and expelling Jews from their homes, that invigorates our haters all over the world in seeing how weak we are and how horrible we treat our own, that it leads them to ramp up their acts of hatred towards us. Again, all the “experts” at the time, together with all the slick “peace-loving” politicians, US Jewish leaders and the media establishment pushed a narrative that it would bring “peace” and again blamed us religious, right-wing extremists as the enemies of peace.
Guess what? I was right both times, both the Oslo Accords and the Gaza expulsion were huge failures that brought more terror, more deaths, more international aid to terrorists, and pushed the potential of true peaceful coexistence with our Arab Muslim neighbors further away.
Yet, all those defense “experts” are still respected as “experts”. All those slick “peace-loving” politicians, still are respected around the world with their messages of “peace”, all those US Jewish leaders, still are respected even as they continue to push the lie of the two-state solution, as well as push for policies that appease killers and terrorists, and the media establishment still disrespects and ridicules any and all right-wingers who dare challenge the accepted narrative of “palestine”, the biggest hoax in the world, and the two-state solution, which solves nothing and just prolongs the conflict.
So, all those people are still respected and listened to, even though they are proven wrong time after time and that their continued lies have led to the deaths of thousands of innocent people and no peace.
Yet, people today are warning me that I’m “losing my credibility” and that they are working to blacklist me as an advocate for Israel because I say loud and clear that the US elections are not over, that Joe Biden is not President-elect, that Trump can still win, that he is not an antisemite, that he is not a racist, that Netanyahu is not a criminal etc. – all messages that go against the agenda-driven media that “virtually everyone” accepts.
So, just to help people understand one more time. I say what I say not because I worship Trump or worship Netanyahu. I say what I say because I believe it to be true, important, and not heard enough because of the growing censorship by the left. My life will be fine the day Trump stops being President and the day Netanyahu stops being Prime Minister. I only worship the one above, no human, no politician, no defense “expert” and no media personality. I will continue standing up for what I believe to be true, regardless of who is the President of the USA or the Prime Minister of Israel.
So, my birthday wish for everyone is that not only should they be respectful of everyone else, but respect the pursuit of truth. We will never all agree on everything, and it’s totally natural to just believe what all the “experts”, leaders and media are telling us. But maybe they are wrong. They have been wrong in the past. Maybe I’m wrong. But respect each and every person, regardless of their opinion, and respect the pursuit of truth, even if you disagree.
For those who enjoy listening to my truth, the best thing you can do is to sign up for my newsletters at IsraelUnwired.com and PulseofIsrael.com That is the best birthday present you can give me this year, as facebook, google, youtube and twitter have been trying for years to shut down my voice.
Finally, my wish is that we all make this a great year. A year filled with happiness, with health, and with making the world a better place, and for Jews, that starts with us, as a people, living and building up our national and ancestral homeland in Israel. And may each and every one of us take the time to be grateful to the one above for everything we have, every moment of every day. One of the biggest secrets to living a happy life is living with an attitude of gratitude
