Intolerance

2. 4 BLIND MEN AND AN ELEPHANT
Q: Four blind men encounter an elephant. One grabs the leg and is convinced it's a tree trunk. One holds the tail and thinks it's a whip. Another touches the elephant's trunk and decides it's a hose while the fourth man pats the side and is sure it's a wall. The wise man tells them, "All of you are right." What is the moral of the story?

Many people use this parable to illustrate that everything is relative. After all, here are four different people, each one coming away with a very different conclusion.

But is there an elephant?

Of course the elephant is there! That is the objective reality, independent of anyone's opinion.

What was the mistake of the four blind men? They reached their conclusions without sufficient information. Based on an elephant's trunk alone, it's unlikely anyone will come to an accurate conclusion. What should they have done? They should have shared their impressions with each other, putting all the pieces together until a clearer picture emerged. Some initial conclusions could have been made: this is not a piece of furniture, it's definitely a four-legged animal. Eventually the elephant's identity would have been revealed.

Isolating one part from the whole creates a distorted picture. It's like a father who walks into a room and sees his son about to hit his sister. The father punishes his son, while the daughter gets off scott-free. He didn't see the initial provocation - the daughter came up and punched her brother for no reason.

To be a judge you need to get the whole picture. The Hebrew word for truth: emett/, contains this lesson. The word is made up of three letters Aleph, Mem and Tav. These are the first, middle and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Truth requires seeing the beginning, the middle and the end.

Truth is complex, multi-faceted, and at times very difficult to grasp. But it's not relative. The truth is out there. It's objective and real. With the commitment and openness to find more and more pieces of the puzzle, we can get a clearer picture of what that truth is.

IN SUMMARY

• There is an objective reality. The truth is out there.
  
  
• We need to be continuously open to adding pieces to the puzzle in our search for the whole picture.
  
  

BACKGROUND SOURCES

1. Since God is one, not two, Truth is His seal. For there can only be one truth; it is impossible for there to be two.
Nesivos Olam, The Path of Truth, Maharal of Prague

2. [Reb Yochanan] taught Resh Lakish the Torah and Mishnah and made him into a great man..... [When] Resh Lakish died Reb Yochanan was plunged into deep grief [because he could not find another student like him - Rashi]. The Rabbis said, "Who will go to ease his mind? Let Rebbe Elazar the son of Pedas go, since his learning is very sharp." So [Rebbe Elazar] went and sat before Reb Yochanan. For every point in learning that Reb Yochanan said, Rebbe Elazar remarked, "Here is support for what you just said..." Reb Yochanan complained, "Are you like [Resh] Lakish?! Every time I would say something, Resh Lakish would give twenty-four objections! And then I would give twenty-four answers and we would come away with a full understanding. But you say, 'Oh, I know something that supports you.' Don't you think I already know that what I'm saying is correct!?" Then Reb Yochanan continued to rend his garments and weep, moaning: "Where are you [Resh] Lakish, oh where are you?!"
Babylonian Talmud; Baba Metzia, 84:a

4..... Bias never entirely obscures the truth. Even after the desires of one's heart have persuaded him to accept the false way as true, he still knows in his heart of hearts that the true path is "truer" than the other one. He accepts falsehood as a substitute for the truth, not as truth itself.... Every human being thus has the faculty of determining in his own heart where the real truth lies.
Michtav M'Eliyahu, The Truth Perspective, Rabbi E. Dessler