One of the most quoted teachings of our tradition, for good reason, is the notion that saving a life is equivalent to saving a whole world. Most of us have probably heard it, if not used it ourselves to impart the importance of the impact on even one person’s life. This line comes to us from the Mishna, and I was reading it this week in preparation for teaching it later today to middle-schoolers at Bornblum as a guest teacher.
The context of this line, however, gives us additional food for thought. Mishna Sanhedrin is a whole tractate dedicated to courts, judicial cases, and process of law. The specific Mishna where our teaching is featured is about the importance of offering true testimony as a witness when part of a capital case. It opens by declaring that we warn witnesses by imparting the gravity of their testimony. The Mishna explicitly states that we, as witnesses, might state things that we heard as hearsay, or even from a trustworthy source, and be willing to pass it off as Truth, even if not maliciously. If their testimony leads to a guilty verdict, it not only has legal ramifications for the defendant but it has spiritual ones as well - that person will be considered to have killed an entire world.
This Mishna raises a question, in a stark way, about our role in truth-telling. In warning the witnesses about the importance of their role, the Mishna is subtly also asking us: how often might we say something not realizing the implications? How likely are we to jump to a conclusion? I’ve never sat on a jury or been a witness in a case, but I look around our world and I see people eager to say things about others, whether it be an institution, a politician, or an acquaintance. We might not be dealing with a capital case, but we are certainly dealing with reputations, feelings, and relationships.
The Mishna’s teaching isn’t a trite message about not speaking badly about others; it reminds us that our assertions have ramifications, and we must therefore be careful about what we declare to be true. Though I’m teaching this text to a group of teens, as I’ve been preparing my lesson this week, it feels so real and important for all of us.
May we each do the work to seek out Truth in this world, to save lives and to save worlds.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
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