Truth vs Life

I smile when I’m angry.

I cheat and I lie.
I do what I have to do
To get by.
But I know what is wrong,
And I know what is right.
And I’d die for the truth
In My Secret Life.

(Leonard Cohen, In My Secret Life)

א"ר יוחנן משום ר"ש בן יהוצדק נימנו וגמרו בעליית בית נתזה בלוד כל עבירות שבתורה אם אומרין לאדם עבור ואל תהרג יעבור ואל יהרג חוץ מע"ז גילוי עריות וכו

כי אתא רב דימי א"ר יוחנן לא שנו אלא שלא בשעת שמד אבל בשעת שמד אפי' מצוה קלה יהרג ואל יעבור ... מאי מצוה קלה אמר רבא בר רב יצחק אמר רב אפילו לשנויי ערקתא דמסאנא

Strange paradox the Gemara is presenting: If you need to eat pig in order to live then "do what you've got to do" but the moment you're being forced to eat pig (or tie your shoes) as an expression of a statement of Existential Truth, you must die for it. You must die rather than give up your faith (אמונה) in that which is Truth (אמת) even though, in action, you may have to live by that which is False.

Part of a larger thought I had about הויה vs חיים or as I like to capture it as the paradox in Dan Akroyd's selling a $12,000 Swiss watch in Harlem for $50 (in the movie Trading Places) because "In Harlem it's worth $50." This Gm' is essentially saying you're permitted to sell that watch for $50 so that you can survive but only so long that you're allowed to maintain your position/belief that in Truth the watch is really worth $12k. The moment the world is demanding of you to not only live as though the watch is $50 but also maintain existentially that's it's only $50 is the moment you have to give up your life.

וצדיק באמונתו יחיה

I smile when I’m angry.
I cheat and I lie.

I do what I have to do
To get by.
But I know what is wrong,
And I know what is right.
And I’d die for the truth
In My Secret Life.


[Additionally can be seen then as the paradox between normative v. empirical or מצוי נגד רצוי]

Versions of The Truth

Harry: I have never lied to you. I have always told you some version of the truth.

Erica Barry: The truth doesn't have versions, okay?

(Quote from the movie "Somethings Got To Give")

The more I think about it the more I've realized that Harry is actually right. There are "versions of Truth"; not because there is no one objective set of Truth out there in the world [I believe that there is i.e. Torah sh'Bichtav] but because of the deficiencies on the side of the "receiver" the "Truth" must sometimes be "distorted" so as to conform appropriately to the receiver. Or in other words, telling over the Pure Truth to someone "who can't handle the Truth" is not Truth at all.

Take the issue of גר הבא על אמו for example. The Torah defines for us the pure existential Truth of the matter-- גר שנתגייר כקטן שנולד דמי , therefore Truth sees no ערוה in the relationship whatsoever. But we, as flesh and blood humans have difficulty making that distinction, we're so accustomed at looking through pure physical lenses that we see as nothing less than incest. Hence the רבנן come and prohibit it. Which one is therefore "the Real Truth"? Both are, depending on what dimension you're coming from. Existentially, objectively גר הבא על אמו is מותר. Practically, in reality, in practice it's forbidden because the world cannot handle that Truth...

This is also לענ"ד the deeper understanding in דן דין אמת לאמתו beyond it's being an objective דין אמת it also is subjectively, in it's application, לאמתו.

Harry: I have never lied to you. I have always told you some version of the truth.

[P.S. Afterwards I saw that the של"ה in his comments on פרשת בראשית says a very similar thing. ברוך שכוונתי ]

Finicky Etymology & a Website of New Interest

Just had thought today of the connection of english "finicky" with the hebrew פינוק, מפונק

Googled and came across this website of interest:

http://theoriginoflanguage.com/un-confounding-dictionary/

Will have to look at that further.