The Torah portion begins as Avram is called to go to the land that God will show him. Together with his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot and the people that wish to join him, Avram begins his journey from Ur to Canaan. Early on, there was a great famine in the land, and Avram decided to go to Egypt.
(11) As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. (12) If the Egyptians see you, and think, ‘She is his wife,’ they will kill me and let you live. (13) Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may remain alive thanks to you.”
Sforno on Genesis 12:13
למען ייטב לי, so that when you will say that you are my sister, each one will entertain the hope that I will agree to your marrying them. Therefore, none of them will have any reason to kill me. Rather, he will seek my approval by offering me a dowry for you. It was the custom in those days that the father of the bride would be bribed with money or its equivalent to agree to let his daughter marry someone. This also explains why the Torah speaks of מהר ימהרנה in Exodus 22,15-16, i.e. “he (the seducer) shall pay a heavy dowry,” and why the option to refuse such a marriage is not so much the girl’s but her father’s, as we see from the verse following.
KaKtav VeHaKabalah, Genesis 12:13
Please say that you are my sister. That is, resolve in your heart that we are no longer married. Before the Torah was given this was sufficient to effect a divorce, hence he was not asking her to lie. Although Avraham observed the entire Torah, in this case he conducted himself according to Noachide law to save his life.
Was Abraham right to ask Sarah to lie?
What are some of the reasons given for Abraham's decision?
Were his actions justifiable? Why or why not?
(14) When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw how very beautiful the woman was. (15) Pharaoh’s courtiers saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s palace. (16) And because of her, it went well with Abram; he acquired sheep, oxen, asses, male and female slaves, she-asses, and camels. (17) But God afflicted Pharaoh and his household with mighty plagues on account of Sarai, the wife of Abram. (18) Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me! Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? (19) Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now, here is your wife; take her and begone!” (20) And Pharaoh put agents in charge of him, and they sent him off with his wife and all that he possessed.
What were the implications of Abraham's decision?
Midrash Tanchuma, Lech Lecha 5:3
...And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of the word of Sarai (Gen. 12:17). What is indicated by the phrase Because of the word of Sarai? An angel descended with a staff from heaven at that moment, and when Pharaoh later approached her to remove her shoe, he struck him upon the hand, and when he approached to touch her clothing, the angel struck him again. However, the angel consulted Sarah before administering each blow. How do we know that? We know that because it is written: Because of the word of Sarai. Scripture does not say “Because of” or “For the sake of” or “On account of her merit,” but simply, Because of the word of Sarai. If Sarah told the angel to strike him, he struck him, and if she told him to desist, momentarily, he desisted. The officials, the officers, and all the members of his household were smitten by the angel simultaneously, as it is said: And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of the word of Sarai....
Rabbeinu Bahya, Bereishit 12:13
"please say that you are my sister...” This was an inadvertent sin committed by Avram; it caused the eventual exile in Egypt of his descendants. It was certainly a grave sin to cause his wife to sin on account of his own fear of being killed.
(1) Abraham journeyed from there to the region of the Negeb and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was sojourning in Gerar, (2) Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him. (3) But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are to die because of the woman that you have taken, for she is a married woman.” (4) Now Abimelech had not approached her. He said, “O lord, will You slay people even though innocent? (5) He himself said to me, ‘She is my sister’! And she also said, ‘He is my brother.’ When I did this, my heart was blameless and my hands were clean.” (6) And God said to him in the dream, “I knew that you did this with a blameless heart, and so I kept you from sinning against Me. That was why I did not let you touch her. (7) Therefore, restore the man’s wife—since he is a prophet, he will intercede for you—to save your life. If you fail to restore her, know that you shall die, you and all that are yours.” (8) Early next morning, Abimelech called his servants and told them all that had happened; and they were greatly frightened. (9) Then Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What wrong have I done that you should bring so great a guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done to me things that ought not to be done. (10) What, then,” Abimelech demanded of Abraham, “was your purpose in doing this thing?” (11) “I thought,” said Abraham, “surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. (12) And besides, she is in truth my sister, my father’s daughter though not my mother’s; and she became my wife. (13) So when God made me wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘Let this be the kindness that you shall do me: whatever place we come to, say there of me: He is my brother.’” (14) Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored his wife Sarah to him. (15) And Abimelech said, “Here, my land is before you; settle wherever you please.” (16) And to Sarah he said, “I herewith give your brother a thousand pieces of silver; this will serve you as vindication before all who are with you, and you are cleared before everyone.” (17) Abraham then prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his slave girls, so that they bore children; (18) for יהוה had closed fast every womb of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, the wife of Abraham.
Morinis, Alan. Everyday Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar
Truth is delicate. Its fabric is so easily stretched and torn. Truth is versatile—look at how many causes will readily sacrifice truth to some other goal. Truth can be simple, but more often it is deceptively complex, and not always singular. And as the Alter of Novarodok teaches, we are easily confused about truth, because truth can appear before us in the guise of falsehood, just as falsehood can show up in the trappings of truth.
What is truthiness?
Stephen Colbert introduced the idea of "truthiness" in 2005 during his talk show The Colbert Report. He explained it as something that one perceives to be true, but that perception may not be based on any facts at all. In his words, truthiness is "What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true." It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality. — Stephen Colbert, quoted in The A. V. Club, 25 Jan. 2006
Bereishit Rabbah 8:5
R. Simon said: When the time came for the Holy Blessed One to make the first human being, The Ministering Angels made themselves into competing counsels, with one group opposing the other. Some of them said, “Don’t create humans,” and the others said “Create them.” So it is written: (Ps. 85:11) “Kindness and Truth met against one another, Righteousness and Peace faced each other.” The angel of Kindness said, “Create them, for they will do acts of loving kindness.” Then the angel of Truth said, “Do not create them, for they will be full of lies.” The angel of Righteousness said, “Create them, for they will establish justice.” The angel of Peace said, “Do not create them, for they will be in constant strife!” What did the Holy Blessed one do, but grab up Truth and hurl it to the earth, so it is written: (Daniel 8:12) “You hurled Truth to the earth.” Whereupon the Ministering Angels said before the Holy Blessed One, “Ruler of all worlds, what have You done? Why have You so chastised your seal? Let Truth arise again from the earth.” So it is written, (Ps. 85:12) “Truth springs up from the earth.”
Why did God cast Truth down to the earth?
Why did the ministering angels respond as they did?
Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, quoted in Itturei Torah, Vol. I on Genesis 1:26
What is the advantage of casting aside "truth" while "peace" remained which also argued that "s/he not be created."? Yet when we cast aside truth, peace will prevail. The root of argument is that everyone fights for his/her own "truth". But when we push "truth" aside, there is no longer something about which to dispute. Thus there is no argument, and "peace" has no claim to make.
Deborah Lipstadt, author of
"Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory,"
Behind the lies of Holocaust denial
TED talk Posted May 2017
...Many of us have been taught to think there are facts and there are opinions — after studying deniers, I think differently. There are facts, there are opinions, and there are lies. And what deniers want to do is take their lies, dress them up as opinions — maybe edgy opinions, maybe sort of out-of-the-box opinions — but then if they're opinions, they should be part of the conversation. And then they encroach on the facts.
...
So why is my story more than just the story of a quirky, long, six-year, difficult lawsuit, an American professor being dragged into a courtroom by a man that the court declared in its judgment was a neo-Nazi polemicist? What message does it have? I think in the context of the question of truth, it has a very significant message. Because today, as we well know, truth and facts are under assault. Social media, for all the gifts it has given us, has also allowed the difference between facts — established facts — and lies to be flattened.
...
Truth is not relative. Many of us have grown up in the world of the academy and enlightened liberal thought, where we're taught everything is open to debate. But that's not the case. There are certain things that are true. There are indisputable facts — objective truths. ... The Earth is not flat. The climate is changing. Elvis is not alive...
...
And most importantly, truth and fact are under assault. The job ahead of us, the task ahead of us, the challenge ahead of us is great. The time to fight is short. We must act now. Later will be too late.
Everyday Holiness -- Alan Morinis p. 169
Truth involves not only speaking accurately, but even more important and earlier in the process, seeing accurately. And since truths are often multiple, so must be our perspectives. Seeing a situation from the vantage point of others who are involved is one principle we need to apply to truth. Another is to be sensitive to the results that spring from our "truth."
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, Reconstructionist Mahzor p.190
From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth
From the laziness that is content with half-truths,
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
O God of Truth deliver us.