Shavuot: Nothing but the Truth - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

in 2016 after much discussion Oxford dictionary's elected the word post truth word of the year post truth is an adjective defined as relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief we live in a post truth world a world that is relegated truth to second place behind belief emotion and respect implicit in the word post truth is the belief that there's something beyond the truth the truth is not something ultimate and unbending there's my truth and there's your truth and hey even though my truth may contradict your truth completely or no big deal because my truth is true for me and your truth is true for you meaning there's no truth now in the absence of a belief in absolute truth respect has become the ruling virtue an interesting linguistic metamorphosis in our post truth world is the word narrative now narrative used to mean a story now it has a new usage a narrative is your version of the truth for example as an Israeli narrative a Palestinian narrative there's a white narrative a black narrative we have a male narrative a female narrative and you have to respect my narrative because it's just as valid as yours implicitly the use of the word narrative in this way it denies the existence of a third possibility the truth what a triumph or the spin doctors oh and there's another brave new word spin doctors translation liars now take the following nouns they all want to sound truth but they all mean lies here we go poetic truth parallel truth nuanced truth imaginative truth virtual truth alternative reality strategic misrepresentations creative enhancement non full disclosure selective disclosure augmented reality nearly true almost true counter factual statements fact-based information and present-day synonyms for the word to lie include to enrich the truth to enhance the truth to embroider the truth to massage the truth love that one to tell more than the truth to bend the truth to soften the truth to shade the truth to shave the truth to make things clearer than the truth to be lenient with honesty wonderful more than anything the festival Ashford celebrates the belief that there's something called truth absolute truth and that that truth was revealed to the Jewish people three thousand three hundred and twenty three years ago the Hebrew word for truth is Emmett Emmett is a three-letter word consisting of the first the last and the middle letter of the Hebrew alphabet the word Ahmet itself hints that the truth is inflexible unmarriable it's not my truth your truth it's either true or false from the beginning through the middle to the end the festival Schwartz is the Jewish people's a yearly celebration of belief in God believe in the revelation of his will and belief that there's something more compelling in this world than respect it's called the truth [Music] [Applause]