Facts and Truth

Sh’lach

Num. 13:1-15:41

 

Précis: Moses is ordered to “send out” (sh’lach l’cha) spies to examine the land. Representatives of each tribe go out, report on its bounty, but also report about its fearsome inhabitants. The People are frightened, and their “murmuring” turns into something close to panic. God tells Moses that He will destroy the People, but Moses intercedes; the People are sentenced to spend 40 years in the wilderness. The parasha then returns to matters concerning the Tabernacle, with a discussion of the offering for unintentional sins. Near its end, the parasha discusses the wearing of tzitzit, a paragraph which is part of the traditional recitation of the Sh’ma. This is the 27th of 54 parshiot, marking the half-way point in the yearly reading.

 

Num. 13:27-28 “And they told him, ‘We came to the land you sent us to, and surely it flows with milk and honey; but the people that live in the land are fierce. And the cities are fortified, and very great, moreover, we saw Amalekites there.’”

            In 2007, I wrote in my weekly d’var the following:

            As Etz Hayim suggests, “truth” is not a mere matter of factual accuracy, but is also a matter of how the facts are presented. Even when the “empirical facts” are accurately reported, the “truth” may elude us. Context, background, history, expression, and intention are all a part of how we communicate the “truth,” whether it is about our congregations, our families, or even our country.

            This previous commentary needs an update, because increasingly in America the factionalism which so divides political parties and even families is driven by a divergence of what different sides deem to be facts. We watched the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by those who believed the Big Lie that the presidential election had been stolen. Now we hear folks who try to justify what we watched as merely being folks visiting the Capitol, or that it was protected First Amendment expression, or that any violence was due to left-wing agitators masquerading as Trump supporters.

            Last week, Republican Senators blocked by filibuster the creation of an independent, bi-partisan panel to investigate the background which led to the January 6 insurrection. They had no justification for their position other than the fear that disclosure of the empirical facts would be harmful to their political future, and (perhaps more importantly) the investigation was opposed by the former President.

            One definition of the word “cult” is “a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing.” I maintain that this is precisely the motivation of those who refuse to investigate, let alone accept, the facts of this most heinous event in recent American history.