Sanhedrin 97a describes the city of Keshot where lying was loathed and no one died prematurely: “Concerning the lack of truth, Rava says: ‘Initially, I would say that there is no truth anywhere in the world. There was a certain one of the Sages, and “Rav Tavut” is his name, and some say ‘Rav Tavyomei’ is his name, who was so honest that if they were to give him the entire world, he would not deviate from the truth in his statement. He said to me: “One time, I happened to come to a certain place, and ‘Truth’ (Keshot) is its name, and its residents would not deviate from the truth in their statements, and no person from there would die prematurely. I married a woman from among them, and I had two sons from her.’”
“One day, his wife was sitting and washing the hair on her head. Her neighbor came and knocked on the door. He thought: ‘It is not proper conduct to tell the neighbor that his wife is bathing.’ He said to her: “She is not here.” Since he deviated from the truth, his two sons died. The people residing in that place came before him and said to him: ‘What is the meaning of this?’ He said to them: “This was the nature of the incident, and told them what happened.” They said to him: ‘Please leave our place and do not provoke premature death upon these people.’”
Interestingly, although there are many exceptionally pious individual Jews and Jewish communities, we never hear of any seeking to emulate Keshot’s tenacious truth policy. The reason emerges from a close examination of our Gemara.
It begins with Rava saying that he first lamented the lack of people absolutely committed to truth. He changes his mind after seeing Rav Tavut fail in Keshot. Rav Tavut was deeply committed to truth, but deviated when necessary, to preserve his wife’s dignity and tzniut.
Significantly, Chazal set a high bar for tzniut. Even hinting at his wife washing her hair would have been a tzniut breach, for which Rav felt it necessary to deviate from absolute truth even in Keshot. We must not set our tzniut standards by the appallingly low standards of contemporary Western society. Rather, we aspire to Chazal’s high standards that prioritize human dignity.
From Rav Tavut’s experience, Rava realized that Keshot-style living is untenable. Thus, Rava no longer mourned the absence of absolute truth in this world. Rav Kook emphasizes that one cannot focus on one value exclusively. One must consider competing values and needs and do our best to value them.
Conclusion
Our Gemara is reminiscent of the Rashi to Bereishit 1:1 s.v. bara Elokim). Originally, Rashi quotes Chazal’s teaching that Hashem intended to conduct the world entirely by middat hadin (strict justice). However, Hashem “realized” that such a world is unsustainable. Instead, He created the world by blending middat hadin and middat harachamim. Such a world is sustainable.
Rav Tavut’s experience shows that Keshot-style living is unsustainable. Thus, while in passing theory it seems ideal, in reality, no Jew or Jewish community aspires to achieve its elusive high standards. Rather, all proper Torah individuals and communities blend all Torah values—holding truth as a supremely high but not absolute value. As Kohelet (7:16) teaches, “al tihiyeh tzaddik harbeh, lama tishom—do not be excessively pious, for why be unnecessarily destroyed.”
Rabbi Jachter serves as the rav of Congregation Shaarei Orah, rebbe at Torah Academy of Bergen County and a get administrator with the Beth Din of Elizabeth. Rabbi Jachter’s 19 books may be purchased at Amazon and Judaica House.
