[Encryptus]

Jewish teaching on the topic


Truth, as Judaism teaches, is a high value but not an absolute one.

The first chapter of Exodus describes the effort by Pharaoh to eliminate the Israelites by drowning their firstborn male babies in the Nile. He appoints Shifra and Puah, two midwives, to carry out this task. But the midwives fear God and, instead of killing the babies, help save them.

Pharaoh, distressed to learn that his murderous campaign is being thwarted, summons the midwives and demands to know why they have disobeyed his order. The Bible tells us that the two women tell Pharaoh a lie: “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the midwives can come to them, they have given birth” (Exodus 1:19).

Did the Bible feel the midwives’ response was cowardly, and dislike the fact that they lied?

Not at all. The subsequent verses tell us that God “dealt well” with the midwives, and established “households” (large families) for them. In other words, the midwives were right for saving the Israelite infants and for lying to Pharaoh.

In a later incident, God Himself is depicted as instructing a prophet to save himself by telling a lie. Thus, when God tells the prophet Samuel to anoint David as king in lieu of Saul, Samuel is horrified. If Saul learns of what he is doing, the kind will have him executed. God instructs Samuel to tell Saul a lie, that he is making his trip to offer a special sacrifice to God, and not to mention his real purpose (see I Samuel 16).

Of course, God could have told Samuel to tell Saul the truth, and assure the prophet that He would protect him, but instead He tells him to lie. From this, we learn that we should also lie to thwart would-be killers, and not tell them the truth and rely on God to save us.

There are rare instances in which Judaism instructs one to be a martyr. For example, if you can save your life only by killing an innocent person, you are forbidden to do so, and should allow yourself to be killed rather than kill. However, Jewish law condemns as foolish and immoral both telling the truth to an evil person and thereby enabling him to go on doing evil, or telling the truth to an evil person that leads to your murder.

Truth is a high value; the saving of innocent life is a higher one.