Training Ourselves to Tell the Truth

Text by Rabbi David Chananya Pinto

In our Parashah [Mishpatim], the Torah warns us against the prohibition of falsehood, as it is stated, “Distance yourself from a false matter.” Thus the Chafetz Chaim writes [in his sefer Sefat Tamim 87]: How great the virtue of truth is; it is one of the pillars that the world stands upon, as Chazal state. One who upholds this, it is as if he sustained the entire world, and brings abundance to the world, as it is stated in the midrash [Yalkut Tehillim 85] on the pasuk “Truth will sprout from the earth.” When there is truth in the world, Hashem performs charity with the people and saves them from calamity, and abundance comes down to the world.

And this trait, the Chafetz Chaim writes, brings a person to do good things and withdraw from doing anything evil.