Last month I had the privilege to hear Rabbi Paysach Krohn speak about “Being a Jew in today’s workplace”. One of the most important things I felt that he said over was that we must strive to be emesdik and ehrliech when dealing with both Jews and non-Jews. He said we can become close to Hashem by being honest. He then quoted a Rabbeinu Bechaye that is gevaldik.
Rabbeinu Bechaye says this importance of honesty brought in the first words of the Torah. Every nekuda is in the first pasuk of the Torah, except the shuruk. He explains that this is because the letters which spell the word shuruk (shin-reish-kuf)can also be rearranged to spell the word sheker (shin-kuf-reish), lying, and because sheker cannot be even hinted to in foundation of the Torah. Hashem created this world to be a place based on truth, there was no room for sheker!
wow! that Rabbeinu Bechaye is powerful!
Yeah, for sure.
Great post! If you want to see it inside, I believe it can be found in Kad Hakemach, written by Rabbeinu Bechaye, as opposed to his sefer by the name “Rabbeinu Bechaye”.
Nice vort!