Polishing The Truth

  Last week I took an involuntary vacation from writing in English, because two separate book projects in Hebrew on Biblical subjects both hit the proofreading stage simultaneously. Essentially I had to read through two Hebrew books of over two hundred pages each, checking all content, grammar, and spelling.

         But in the course of the intense Bible study this fostered, I was blessed to discover a vital source for everything that we do as conservative writers.

         Jewish students of Bible in Hebrew rely heavily on the commentary of Rash”i, an acronym for Rabbi Shlomo (Solomon) Yitzchaki (Isaacson), a genius scholar who lived on the border between France and Germany from 1040 to 1105. The Five Books of Moses are reread from end to end each year in the synagogue on Saturdays, divided into more or less equal weekly segments. Many motivated individuals try to cover – over the course of the week – Rashi's commentary of the weekly reading.

         He does have a tendency to veer off periodically into grammar and etymology, and students tend to focus more on his narrative-based analysis with more interest, often yawning their way through the more “technical” material.

         As it turns out, I tripped over an etymological comment this week that holds a vital key to our work. In the Book of Numbers, the story is told of twelve communal leaders sent ahead of the Hebrews to enter Israel for purposes of scouting the terrain; espionage, if you will. When they came back, ten out of twelve issued negative reports, with only two bringing favorable ones.

         This precipitated a great public crisis, as large segments of the population suffered a dramatic loss of confidence in their ability to conquer the Holy Land. Amid the public wailing, God makes a prophetic appearance and announces a 39-year delay in the plan to enter Israel. The troublemakers will die out over those years and a more confident generation of youth will march in to reclaim their birthright.

         The spies who brought back a negative view of the national project died immediately. The verse excoriates them for bringing and publicizing bad “dibah” about the Land.

         What is this word “dibah”? Speech in Hebrew is usually “dibur”. This new word is close enough to be related, but how? Rashi explains that “dibah” is a short phrase, what we call a sound bite. It is designed as a publicity technique, to make a pointed point. The idea is that people will repeat it, so it will travel quickly, maximizing public impact.

         Then Rashi adds one more deduction. Since the Bible said their “dibah” was bad, it implies that good “dibah” is legitimate. Namely, that it is appropriate to create positive sound bites, little slogans, to reinforce the goodness of good things.

         This is an important teaching, because we might have imagined that truth requires no shaping and allows for no polishing. It should speak for itself in unvarnished tones of virtue.

         But the Bible here indicates to us that we can fight for truth will well-crafted messaging, good sound bites, and solid slogans. The truth sells, but does not necessarily sell itself.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.