Parshat Re'eh

This week’s Parsha relates to us a possible situation, where you hear a rumor about another city being led astray.  This scenario is a really important lesson on how the Torah teaches us to deal with the way we react to hearing rumors.  The verse reads:

 “If, in one of your cities that the Lord your God gave to you dwell, you hear that: There are lawless men from your midst that are leading the city astray by advocating that the entire city should start worshipping other Gods.” (13:13-14)

The question we should ask ourselves is: how does the Torah want us to react?  Throughout the past few Parshiyot (plural form of Parsha) the Torah has stressed the heinousness of worshipping other Gods in the eyes of the one true God.  One might think that the nation should rush as quickly as possible to root out this possible evil form their midst. 

Yet the Torah’s advice is the opposite.  Rather than jumping to conclusions, the Torah advises us to carefully seek out the veracity of these claims.  The verse reads, “You shall seek out, and investigate, and inquire well…” (13:15).

The Torah uses 3 different terms for the methods used to establish facts: “you shall seek out, and investigate, and inquire well”.  This focus on going to great lengths to establish what the facts on the ground are is an important value in Judaism.  Despite the seriousness of the claims, the process should not be a hasty rush to eliminate this evil.  No matter how terrible the act, the values being expressed by the Torah stress the importance of truth above all else. 

Religious decisions need to be based on careful study, intellectual vigilance, and open honest inquiry.  Religious zealousness without the checks and balance of establishing truth is very dangerous.  The Torah is able to stomach the possibility of an entire city being led into the worship of foreign Gods for a little while longer in order to check the facts. 

This lesson can be applied to our lives in many ways.  We often can’t help but jump to conclusions when we hear rumors about other people; the moral immoral the rumor the more judgmental we become.  How many of us take the time to carefully inquire, deliberate and investigate the truth behind the rumors before we judge the people that the rumor is about?  It’s very difficult to do that, especially when we are emotionally compelled by moral outrage about whatever it is that we have heard.  If God can command us to delay our judgments even of idol worship in order to be careful in the decisions we make, how much more so should we be careful when judging others in our day to day lives?

I can’t help to point out another important Jewish value being expressed here.  This is a source for the centrality of the intellectual process in Jewish tradition.  There are forces in Judaism today which would have us believe that Judaism wants us to accept everything our leaders tell us without question.  The Torah here is showing us that the intellectual process is paramount when it comes to developing our own understanding of truth.  Jewish tradition stresses the importance of finding a teacher for yourself, but teachers are supposed to enable the student by giving him or her the tools of tradition to make up their own minds.