Fighting Lies in a World of Relativism By: Rabbi Elie Mischel
At this point, it happens so often, we hardly notice it. Driven by ideology, the media and politicians interpret events in ways that fit neatly into their ideology. Truth? Objectivity? Who needs it?
Last week, Israel pulled off one of the greatest counter-terrorism operations in history, killing a few dozen Hezbollah and injuring thousands more through its extraordinary exploding beeper operation – a devastating attack reminiscent of the miraculous destruction of Sennacherib’s army. Incredibly, the operation wounded thousands of terrorists with almost no collateral damage to civilians.
By every standard, this was the ideal military operation – a pinpoint attack against some of the most evil people on earth. Yet former Obama-Biden CIA director John Brennan, at one point America’s highest ranking intelligence official, scolded Israel for “emboldening Hezbollah’s interest,” while French President Emanuel Macron lectured Netanyahu, saying “Israel is pushing the region into war.”
Israel is the aggressor? Israel responsible for pushing the region into war? Have Brennan and Macron forgotten that Hezbollah – a terrorist organization whose goal is the eradication of the State of Israel – has fired over 8,000 missiles at Israel since October 7, and that Hezbollah is responsible for the murder of hundreds of Americans since its founding in 1982? Brennan and Macron’s take on events is so absurd, it’s hard to imagine they believe their own words. Yet millions of people unthinkingly accept their falsehood as truth.
The sages teach: in the generation [of the final redemption]… Truth will be missing, as it is written:
What is the meaning of “truth will be missing”? The sages explain: It means that truth will be split up into separate groups (adarim, from the same root as ne’ederet).
Close to two thousand years ago, the sages predicted that today, during the generation before the final redemption, objective truth would be lost and every group would believe in its “own truth.” As Allan Bloom wrote in The Closing of the American Mind in 1987, “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes… that truth is relative.”
Relativism means that there is no absolute truth, only multiple truths that different people and groups may choose to adopt. In this view, “truth” shifts from something objective to being defined as “true for me” or “true for my culture.”
In other words, it doesn’t matter that Hezbollah is a bloodthirsty terrorist group that indiscriminately murders men, women and children. If I feel that Hezbollah is the good guy and Israel is the bad guy – well, that’s my truth and there is nothing you can say to make me change my mind! In our world of moral relativism, objective truth no longer matters.
Why must truth disappear in the days before redemption? Why must we experience so much confusion and falsehood before the truth of the final redemption?
I believe it is because God desires that we fight for truth. Truth doesn’t vanish; it becomes obscured, requiring us to stand firm against deception. This is the deeper purpose of evil and falsehood. It is not meant, God forbid, to defeat truth, but rather to force us to discover and develop our desire for all that is good and true.
Rav Sha’ul warned about being ambivalent with regard to truth in this in his letter to the community at Thesalonica:
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12
For the mystery of lawlessness is already operating; only there is one who holds back just now, until he is taken out of the way. 8 Then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Yeshua will slay him with the breath of His mouth and wipe him out with the appearance of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is connected to the activity of satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 10 and with every kind of wicked deception toward those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a delusional force, to lead them to believe what is false, 12 so that they may be judged—all those who did not believe the truth but delighted in wickedness.
Sha’ul states that if we are not actively pursuing the love of truth, God Himself will heap a strong delusion upon us to help us believe the lie. There is no neutral position on this topic. Are you and I actively pursuing truth no matter the cost?
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