"Nobody believes a liar...even when he is telling the truth!" #devartorah#Vayigash#parashathashavua

Do you remember Aesop’s fable about the boy who cried Wolf?

There once was a shepherd boy who was bored as he sat on the hillside watching the village sheep. To amuse himself he took a great breath and sang out, "Wolf! Wolf! The Wolf is chasing the sheep!"

The villagers came running up the hill to help the boy drive the wolf away. But when they arrived at the top of the hill, they found no wolf. The boy laughed at the sight of their angry faces.

"Don't cry 'wolf', shepherd boy," said the villagers, "When there's no wolf!" They went grumbling back down the hill.

Later, the boy sang out again, "Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is chasing the sheep!" To his naughty delight, he watched the villagers run up the hill to help him drive the wolf away.

When the villagers saw no wolf they sternly said, "Save your frightened song for when there is really something wrong! Don't cry 'wolf' when there is NO wolf!"

But the boy just grinned and watched them go grumbling down the hill once more.

Later, he saw a REAL wolf prowling about his flock. Alarmed, he leaped to his feet and sang out as loudly as he could, "Wolf! Wolf!"

But the villagers thought he was trying to fool them again, and so they didn't come.

At sunset, everyone wondered why the shepherd boy hadn't returned to the village with their sheep. They went up the hill to find the boy. They found him weeping.

"There really was a wolf here! The flock has scattered! I cried out, "Wolf!" Why didn't you come?"

An old man tried to comfort the boy as they walked back to the village.

"We'll help you look for the lost sheep in the morning," he said, putting his arm around the youth, "Nobody believes a liar...even when he is telling the truth!"

Even though I’m pretty sure that Avot deRabbi Natan did not know Aesop’s fables, this collection of aggadah on this week’s Torah portion Vayigash comes to the same conclusion. "Nobody believes a liar...even when he is telling the truth!" Joseph sends his brothers back to Canaan to bring the rest of the family to Egypt so he could sustain them during the famine. “They went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. And they told him, “Joseph is still alive; yes, he is ruler over the whole land of Egypt.” His heart went numb, for he did not believe them.” (Genesis 45:26)

We live in an age of conspiracy theories, misinformation, and outright lies. My Congressman-elect George Santos has admitted that he lied about his life. He never graduated college; he never worked for Wall Street firms; he never owned property; and his grandparents are not Jewish let alone survived the Holocaust. So far he is refusing to resign his seat. If he does take his seat, he will feel quite at home with all the other Congressman who accept the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

Telling the truth has become even more important than ever. Rabbi Hannina ben Hama teaches “The seal of the Holy One is truth.” (TB Shabbat 55a) I have taught that if you tell the truth, you have God’s seal of approval. When you have God’s seal of approval, the truth you speak will ultimately triumph over lies.