Speak the Truth

4 Sivan 5782

“Who may ascend the mountain of the L‑rd, and who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not used My Name in vain or sworn falsely.” (Tehillim 24:3-4)

It is a great matter to always speak the truth, to say nothing but the truth, not to add or subtract from the truth, and to have one and the same face, inside and outside. As the Rambam rules in Hilchos De’os 2:6, “A person is forbidden to act in a smooth-tongued and luring manner. He should not speak one thing outwardly and think otherwise in his heart. Rather, his inner self should be like the self which he shows to the world. What he feels in his heart should be the same as the words on his lips … It is forbidden to utter a single word of deception or fraud. Rather, one should have only truthful speech, a proper spirit and a heart pure from all deceit and trickery.”

“Take the Levites instead of all the firstborns among the children of Israel” (Bamidbar 3:45)

“The other tribes were counted only from age twenty – the age at which they were old enough to serve in the army. The Levites’ task, however, was to protect the Tabernacle, and any increase in their population – even of newborn infants – helped them in this task. Therefore, they were counted virtually from birth.

We can all join the legions of the Levites in a spiritual sense, by nurturing our intrinsic connection to G‑d. This connection is not affected by any variations in time, age, or environment. It therefore enables us to ‘know Him in all your ways,’ down to the simplest aspects of life that a mature adult shares with the smallest child.” (Daily Wisdom, Lubavitcher Rebbe)

“And since the destruction of the Temple, ‘Hakadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, blessed be He) has but the four cubits of Halachah alone.’” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 53)

“Know Him in all your ways” means to be the same Yid everywhere you go. It means to act in business the same way you act in your Rabbi’s house. It means to work on yourself like a child works on himself to stop playing games with other people and to start telling the truth. We have to be anshei emet, men of truth, who live up to the Rambam’s dictum above, which is Halacha, the Holy of Holies of this world, and as such contains the full condensed Will and Wisdom of the Holy One, blessed be He, as explained in today’s Tanya at length.