Jewish Literacy Offers the Key to Holding More Than One Truth

The human mind craves certainty. We like clean lines and simple choices: right lane or left, dessert or restraint, I agree with you or I don’t. Jewish life has never been that tidy. We are a people who study arguments for sport, who treasure texts filled with contradictions and who inherited a tradition that insists we can hold competing truths without losing our heads or our hearts.

The Torah makes this clear from the start. Take, for instance, the verse “Justice, justice shall you pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20). Why does the word “justice” appear twice, the rabbis ask? Because real justice demands more than one path and never erases the dignity of those who disagree. Truth in Judaism rarely arrives in a single package.

Rambam (Maimonides) understood this well. He championed reason as a divine gift, but at the same time he believed God’s essence exceeds human grasp. He also warned that “the truth is not always apparent and requires careful investigation” (The Guide to the Perplexed). Anyone insisting there is only one way to understand the world should make us suspicious. That was true in the 12th century, and it is just as true now.

Yet over the last several years, as social media presses in upon us every minute of every day, holding more than one truth is almost impossible. We are constantly presented with the false premise of binary choices — not a good thing for our society.

Barry Finestone is President and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation. Read the full piece at eJewish Philanthropy.