And Yaakov said to his father, “I am Esav, your firstborn.” (Bereshis 27:19)
-He meant: I am the one who is bringing you food and Esav is your firstborn (RASHI)

In this week’s parsha, Yaakov seems to tell a lie. Yitzchak asked Esav to bring him a meal so he can give him a great blessing. Rivka overhears this conversation and knows that the blessing should go to Yaakov. Therefore, they make a famous plan so Yaakov can receive the blessing from Yitzchak. When Yaakov delivers the meal, Yitzchak asks, “who is it?” Yaakov answers “I am Esav, your firstborn.” The commentators point out that although this was a lie, Yaakov was actually allowed to lie in this case. This was an important matter and therefore, Yaakov was allowed to lie. Although we have a mitzvah to distance ourselves from falsehood, Jewish law allows us to tell lies in certain cases.

I recently read a story about a person who had passed away and during the shiva, it was learned that this person was a hidden tzaddik. He secretly gave tzedakah to many people. He was able to secretly perform this mitzvah because he did not tell the full truth. For example, he tried to get a boy into a yeshiva for free, but the Rosh Yeshiva said the family needs to pay the tuition. This man returned the next day and said the family decided to pay the tuition and here is the money. Years later it was learned that he lied about this and he was the one who actually paid the tuition.

Last week, I attended a shiur and one of the lessons of the shiur was about giving tzedakah privately so no one would know about it. After the shiur, I told the Rav about the story I read and asked if it is proper to lie to give tzedakah secretly. The Rav said that this is not a proper thing to do. It is proper to give tzedakah without others knowing about it, but a person still needs to distance himself from falsehood.

Even though there are certain times when a person can lie, this does not mean that it is always easy to determine which cases we can lie and which cases we cannot lie. Therefore, we must always ask a Rav or Rebbe what is the proper thing to do in each case we have. Although sometimes it might seem to us that we can lie because it will be for good, only someone knowledgeable in Jewish law can make this decision.

One final note: Yaakov was allowed to lie in this case, but Rashi makes a very interesting comment. He says that although Yaakov was allowed to lie, his intention was not to lie. While he said the “falsehood”, his thoughts were “I am the one bring you food and Esav is your firstborn.” He tried to make his thinking as pure as possible to avoid an outright lie. Yaakov teaches us an important lesson here – even though he was allowed to outright lie, he did not want to. He still wanted to distance himself from falsehood, even though the law stated he did not need to.

We should always try to distance ourselves from falsehood. If we realize that if we lie in a certain case it could bring about something good, we must always discuss it with a Rav.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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