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Don't Believe Everything You Hear

By: SFW Students & Alumna
Miriam Sragow (SFW '09)

            This week's parsha is a critical one since in it we are commanded many of the Mitzvot. Each mitzva is not only a basic commandment but when looked at on a deeper level one can find so much more. Let us specifically focus on the mitzvah of "lo tisa shema shav", you shall not bear a meritless report.

            Rashi comments on this pasuk, saying that we can learn two things from here: Firstly, we learn about the negative commandment not to accept lashon hara. Secondly, the pasuk also teaches us that a judge may not listen to the story of one side until the other side it present. Why can't the judge do this?

            My teacher, Mrs. Hilewitz, suggested to me that the reason has to do with the natural reaction of any person to received information. Whatever we hear first is what we tend to believe, whether it is true or not. We stick with the first words that we hear and it is almost impossible to change our minds or opinions on the situation.  Therefore it would be difficult for a judge to make a fair ruling having already accepting one side of the case in his mind.

             The Chafetz Chaim makes a similar point while talking about lashon hara.  He writes: "people generally believe the first thing they hear. If one hears that someone did something wrong and then is told that the report was false, it is difficult to erase the first impression."

            We see from here that Rashi's two interpretations are, in fact, one. The commandment in this pasuk is really not just for judges, but for all Jews as a whole. Both with regard to a report in court or a report of Lashon Hara, Hashem is telling us not to get ourselves into a situation where a story we hear might cause us to be prejudicial.

            There is another reason, aside from prejudice, that people should not judge (either in or out of court) on the basis of a story they hear. We believe that a person's past does not dictate their future. There is always the ability to do teshuva. Hashem forgives us and subsequently treats us as pure individuals. He wipes our slates clean, erasing all the stains from our sins. Hashem will not judge us based on the sins that we did in the past. We need to learn to imitate Hashem and not let the original things we hear about a person or situation influence how we feel or react to them.

            We can see this concept from another mitzvah in this week's parsha, "v'ger lo toneh", one is not allowed to oppress a convert. We may not even remind a convert of his past. We need to treat him based on his present actions, not on what we first learned about his past. We need to wipe those first impressions out of our minds. Although this seems difficult do and almost against human nature, we need to recognize that if Hashem commanded this to us, we are obviously capable and need to force ourselves to do so.

            We can again find this idea in the Rashi on the pasuk "lo taaneh al reev..." Since there is no yud in the word "reev", Rashi says it can be read as "rav", which would therefore mean "do not respond against your master." The Sanhedrin was required to sit in order of level of Torah knowledge, and the pasuk teaches us that the lowest ranking judge would answer first. This way no one would ever have to answer after his master had already answered. If an answer was first sought out from the most senior member in the Sanhedrin and followed by the next in descending order, no one would ever reveal their own opinion. Whatever the first and most knowledgeable judge said would become true in the minds or all the others. Since that was the first thing they heard, their minds would be made up. Therefore, instead, they started from the end of the line and moved up so that each person would be able to confidently give his opinion and not have his mind set by his superior. The first thing heard is so impressionable that the entire system of the Sanhedrin needed to be set up in order to prevent it having the wrong effect.

            From all these mitzvot it is easily seen how strong and impressionable the first thing one hears can be. We need to work hard to prevent the first pieces of information we hear from automatically becoming the truth in our minds. May we all be zoche to find the real truth in everything we hear and keep all the Mishpatim b'simcha.

Shabbat Shalom!