October 2 , 2006 - TRUTH: THE BASIC ELEMENT OF YOM KIPPUR - (10th of Tishrei, 5767 – Yom Kippur Service)

The Midrash continues: What did the Lord do? While the angels were arguing back and forth, God took Truth and cast it to the ground. God then turned to the Heavenly host and asked why they were continuing to argue? “Give it up. Stop arguing,” said God. “I’ve already completed creating him.” Said the ministering angels before the Holy One, blessed be God: “Sovereign of the universe! Why do You despise Your seal?” ---for, the seal of God is Truth.

It is disturbingly significant that, for humankind to be born, God had to set aside Truth. Today is a day when we ought to be trying to come to as honest an assessment of the world and our places in it as we possibly can. But, over and over again, throughout the past year, we have seen deceitfulness in human affairs…indeed, in our own dealings with each other. The world is so filled with lies and falsehood, if one is set upon finding a standard of truth and honesty in life, as the liturgy says, the disappointment derived from our present day reality would be enough to break the heart.

I want to spend some time this Yom Kippur day assessing Truthfulness on global, national, local, and personal levels. For our ability to attain some measure of what is occurring in our world is an important back drop to the work we should want to be doing this Day of Atonement. Whereas, in past years on this day, I quoted the idea that Pride was the enemy of Yom Kippur, today I assert that Truth and only Truth is its ally.

The record, I’m sure you’ll admit, is not good. A huge ‘for instance’ occurs when countries make aid commitments. They then back out or are not forthcoming. The European Union and others cried bitterly over the devastation caused by the Tsunami and over the horrible effects of the earthquake in Pakistan; nations promised millions in aid. But that has yet to materialize. The same is true about money to combat Aids in Africa which this country has yet to make good on. It’s sad, bordering on the despicable and criminal when countries, including our own, eager to appear righteous in the eyes of the world, cannot be counted on to bring the humanity aid they promise.

Then, too, I think of something I’ve heard Denis Prager say repeatedly (for as often as I listen) on his radio program. He asks: how can the United States and Israel have any dealings whatsoever with people who do not understand the meaning of Truth? Who follow no internationally accepted laws or norms regarding the sanctity of civilian life and refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of a nation that was founded by the consent of a world body? Dealings are based primarily on trust. And trust is based on Truth. And therefore, no agreement can be reached because no agreement or promise of theirs can ever be trusted.

This isn’t a new phenomenon relative to Hamas or Hezbollah. Countless have been the times that the world has encountered this kind of guile. We saw it with the Serb leader, Slobodan Milosevic, who would make and break promises almost simultaneously. There is only one way, ultimately and unfortunately, to deal with such mendacious duplicity. It is by the use of force.

At this moment, we face an arch anti-Semite in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who denies the Holocaust and who, at the same time, claims that Iran’s nuclear program is transparent and open to the world. Throughout history, humankind has been faced with Truth deniers, such bald faced liars. Their perfidy is a sure sign of roiling trouble. Their pretense is a portent of impending conflict and future turmoil.

And I must also point out that although things may not be as dire here on a national level, still, so entangled is our national political system these days that we have created a word for mangled truth. It is called “spin.” Spin actually is posturing, and is meant to circumvent or avoid pure Truth. Spin includes the half-truths and the “barely honest” that “pols” use to explain away their botched, troublesome statements and acts. The chasm that exists between what a politician may say and what, actually, he or she truly believes is often unbridgeable. It’s too often an exercise in illusion and deception.

Our society has developed an entire, media-based, art of commentary, discernment, and interpretation to try to explain to the public exactly what our leaders are saying, doing and thinking. Looking for ulterior motives and uncovering hidden agendas have become finely honed skills necessary to anyone who wants to understand the directions in which we are going or, perhaps, better to say, are being taken. Nothing is as it seems, so often and far have reality and truth diverged into two different entities and directions.

How often have we seen people say or do things that we know to be disingenuous? We understand that they did what they did to achieve a far different purpose than to adhere to or explain what was true. The words “credibility gap” expresses precisely what it is I am referring to. One can hardly believe what comes forward in campaign ads and promises. “Smoke and mirrors” is more likely accurate.

So as not become mired in partisan politics, rather, let’s look at one particular recent incident. It, perhaps, on the surface, isn’t worthy of our attention on a day as solemn as Yom Kippur, but Mel Gipson’s DWI, his anti-Semitic outburst and his subsequent his apology following this incident demonstrate the very spin I am talking about. Did his apology ring true to you? Or did you immediately doubt its sincerity? Did you suspect Gibson’s ulterior motives: maybe to divert well-deserved criticism—that, “I told you so?” that so many of us, suspicious of his being an anti-Semite all along, claimed? Did you not think that in place of admitting his troubles with alcohol, Gibson was trying to undo the damage of his slurs and to right himself for his fans and in the public eye? Where is truth in all of this for Mel Gibson? I doubt that he himself knows. It’s all been a matter of spin. And that’s sad because not just his reputation but his very life is at stake.

Closer to home, we have people telling us little that is truthful about our environment. We should all be standing up and yelling about the scourges that are taking place in the mountains with the infestation of the pine beetle and the impending deaths of our forests. Each day our Denver air grows more polluted. Each day goes by and little seems to be happening to cope with our need for clean water, the essential ingredient for this city’s successful future. When we are given information, we often find that the devil is in the details, and the details point to someone trying to get rich rather than solve the problems.

In point of fact, however, it’s easier to point a finger at our world and at national or local circumstances and call them evil or sinful than to confront ourselves. But if we stop only with what I have said thus far, here today, we shall not be accomplishing what Yom Kippur’s purpose is. For, this day is meant to be an intensely personal one. Our liturgy helps to lead us. It asks: “At what did we aim? How did we stumble? What did we take? What did we give? To what were we blind? Last year’s confession came easily to the lips. Will this year’s come from deeper than the skin? Why are our paths strewn with promises like fallen leaves?” (Page 250)

Interestingly, that prayer ends with a verse that ties us to my original quoted Midrash. It ends by asking: “When shall our lust be for wisdom?” Then, with prophetic hopefulness, it asserts: “Love and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall embrace.” (Page 250)

Throughout this day we shall be reciting traditional versions of the “Al Chayt.” Here we have the litany of our sins listed. They help make this day real for us. They point us toward our personal truths. They include the following lines: “the sin we have committed against You by dishonesty in our work.” (Page 272) That could entail plagiarism…taking as one’s own, someone else’s work. It could include cheating on one’s taxes, or undermining someone else’s integrity by telling untruths about them. Possible examples are endless; it is a generalization which asks of us to fill in our own personal details.

A line in another Al Chayt says: “For deceiving ourselves and others with half truths and for pretending to emotions we do not feel.” It goes on to say: “for denying responsibility for our own misfortunes.” (Page 328) And how many of us haven’t witnessed this when, for example, others, like Koffi Annon and the Europeans, disingenuously, blame us Jews for the impasse in the Middle East or for the problems that exist generally in the world, or, closer to home, we blame a spouse, sibling or friend for our having a self-caused bad day? It’s the kick-the-dog syndrome, and this displacement is dishonest and hurtful.

Another very astute Machzor reading lists parts of our bodies and how, through our misuse of them, we have led ourselves to sin. Specific to the discussion of the need to be truthful is this passage: “I have been created with a mouth and a tongue. But malice, pettiness, falsehood, and slander have sullied my speech. With words I have mocked God’s gift, shaming neighbor and stranger, laughing at the pain of others, uttering false oaths, insincere pledges, and vain promises.” (Page 379)

Perhaps the most insidious form of guile and deception is when we have chosen to turn a blind eye. When, for example, we have perceived a need and chosen to do nothing. I could talk about our broken pledges to study Torah and to support our Temple at this juncture, and this would be fitting. But there is the greater category of silent accession to sin that we must all face today, for each of us is complicit in its continuing to persist in our world. Again our prayer-book cries out to us:

“For the sin of silence. For the sin of indifference. For the closing of borders, for the washing of hands. For the crime of indifference, for the sin of silence.” (Page 439) While this prayer, I am certain, once referred to the world’s responses or lack thereof to the Holocaust, it could just as easily now turn us to the bigotry and falsehoods which surround the whole issue of immigration. And it could just as easily be applied to our very own families where, indeed, we may know of problems, unresolved conflict and pain that call for our helpful intervention but we choose to be non-confrontational. We choose to remain silent.

So often this day goes by with us feeling so uncomfortable that we don’t really hone in on what specific sins we had wanted to acknowledge. It isn’t the fact that we are trying to hide them. Amidst our hunger and thirst, we have difficulty pinning down and concentrating on our own transgressions. The liturgy also helps us elude our admissions, speaking in the plural, “we,” “our,” “us;” helping us to mask our own truths, allowing our sins to go unidentified and unacknowledged, and, therefore, un-repented. But, if we are to come away from this day feeling authentically cleansed and forgiven, then we must make certain that we have probed our hearts as deeply as we can.

I love the lines in Psalm 15 that speak to so much of what we need to resolve within ourselves if our atonement is to be true. I love them because they put forth positives. The Psalm first asks: “Lord, who may abide in Your house? Who may dwell in Your holy mountain?” In other words, who can perceive themselves as forgiven and truly decent people? It states: “Those who are upright; who do justly; who speak truth within their hearts. Who do not slander others, or wrong them or bring shame upon them, who give their word, and, come what may do not retract, who do not exploit others, who never take bribes.” And it ends with this promise: “those who live this way shall never be shaken.” (Page 82)

This is the day we try to find pure Truth within our souls. I know that the process is, indeed, very difficult. Psychologists tell us that we cannot know ourselves in every detail. Some of you have heard of the Johari window. This concept tells us that there our having parts of ourselves that we never share with others. Then, there are things about ourselves that, without the help of others, we shall never know or be able to perceive. During the year, we find that we need community---friends, family, and co-workers---to criticize us constructively and help us to become more aware and more whole as people.

Today we ask God to be our mirror, as it were, to reflect to us, as we try to be wholly self revelatory, how best we should proceed in life. With this in mind, I should like, now, to close with this very gentle prayer to God. In our seeking truth this day, in our pursuing the attempt to be honest with ourselves, with others and with the Almighty, we could each individually concentrate on these words (page 296).

“Lord, you see through me: You know me. You know my coming and my going; You understand my every thought. You measure my going about and my lying down. You are acquainted with all my ways. Search me, O God, look into my heart. Try me; enter my thoughts. Keep me from walking the path of grief, guide me in the way everlasting.”

With God’s help and our sincere efforts to identify the truths that are in each of us, as creations of the Almighty, perhaps we shall be able within our souls to re-unite truth and love, righteousness and peace, making this Yom Kippur a most powerful and meaningful one for ourselves and helping to complete, internally…within our own souls, God’s work of creation.