Faces of truth

In a landmark 2005 paper from Stanford, John Ioannidis, a medical mathematician, argued that most published research findings were false.   How could this be?  Millions of dollars are shelled out each year to the most brilliant minds in the world to discover ‘facts’ about the world.  It turns out truth is not just elusive because scientific discovery is complicated and expensive, but because there is a key aspect to being wise which is often overlooked and, in fact, stifled. 

                That truth is multifarious seems odd.  One would think that truth is or isn’t. What are the shades of truth we are referring to? The mystical books describe that Yakov’s distinguished character trait was truth and that is what he bequeathed to his children. But it seems that his all-encompassing truth was split between his two main offspring- Yosef and Yehuda. Both are described as Kings in the Midrash because they each ruled over a different aspect of Yaakov’s truth.  What are these aspects?

                Yosef represents the common depiction of truth- reality. He maintained his identity against all odds as a teenager spurned by his family and residing in the pits of a foreign country.  He clung to reality even at the most difficult of times. For Yosef, there was reality and nothing else.  This is the type of truth that we all seek- a glimpse into reality.

                On the other side is Yehuda who displays a different quality of truth. He is able to view truth even at his own expense. The mishna in Pirkei Avos 5:7 highlights the difference between a wise person and a fool.  The seventh characteristic is that a wise person is able to admit to the truth. The implication of course is that a wise person is sometimes wrong, sometimes he doesn’t use his mind correctly, and that is part and parcel of wisdom- to see when he is not in step with the truth.  Bear in mind that this is a situation that Yosef is never in because he is never not in step with the truth.

It is the truth of Yehuda that we are meant to grow.  In our journey through life, when confronted with truths, do we adjust our self or do we adjust what we saw to fit what we are?