On Amtrak, Alabama, and Assumptions

An accounting joke has an employer ask several accountants applying for a job:

“What is one plus one?”

“Two,” one accountant answers.

“Eleven,” another accountant answers.

“What do you want it to be?” answers a third accountant, who is hired.

Of course, falsehoods and deception have been around since time immemorial, but outright public lies have really become commonplace. Perhaps it became most prominent when President Trump’s spokesman introduced the idea of “alternative facts.” Another rather bizarre example is Sharpiegate. President Trump tweeted a warning about Hurricane Dorian and said that in addition to Florida, “South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated by the storm.” Apparently, he was wrong about Alabama, and the Birmingham National Weather Service quickly corrected him. It all could have ended there, but of course, it didn’t. On Wednesday, weather reporters and other experts noticed that someone had used a Sharpie to add a little bubble onto a map of the path of a storm that President Trump was using. The little bubble added Alabama!

Not to be outdone, President Biden often tells whoppers of his own. After pronouncing himself “Mr. Amtrak,” Biden tells an incident that occurred with him and Angelo Negri, a former conductor. He said that toward the end of his vice-presidential term, he had flown over a million miles on Air Force planes. As Biden was getting on an Amtrak train, Negri grabbed him affectionately by the cheek and said, “Joey, baby!” Biden said he had been concerned Negri would be shot by the Secret Service, so he had assured agents that Negri was a friend. Then, he said, Negri scoffed and said that Biden’s number of miles traveled on Air Force planes was no “big deal” – because Negri and others had figured out that Biden had traveled a greater number of miles on Amtrak trains over his career in Washington.

But Biden’s account is simply not true. Biden did not reach the million-miles-flown mark as vice president until September 2015. But Negri retired from Amtrak in 1993 and died in May 2014!

Does this brazenness have any effect on halacha?

The Gemara in Rosh Hashana (22b) relates that the great Amora Ulla returned from Eretz Yisrael to Bavel. He informed the populace that the Beis Din in Yerushalayim had declared Elul to be a 30-day month. This apparently was a relatively rare occurrence as the Gemara commented earlier (ibid 19b) that from the days of Ezra, Elul never had 30 days. (With our current calendar, Elul always has 29 days.)

Rav Kahane commented that not only is the great sage Ulla believed to deliver this interesting news, but anyone would be believed. Rav Kahane says that we’ll even believe an average person to let us know the proper day to observe Yom Kippur, because people do not lie about things that will eventually be revealed. It is true that at this junction the populace was unaware when Rosh Hashana was – the 30th day from Rosh Chodesh Elul or the 31st – but eventually, many travelers will come from Eretz Yisrael, and it will become common knowledge. Why would a person utter a lie when his untruth will become apparent to all?

The Rivash asks: why did Rav Kahana need a special reasoning to believe the common man as to how the calendar was set in Yerushalayim? Isn’t it true that in all matters of prohibitions we believe a common man? How can a person eat at someone else’s house? How can a person eat at his own house? Maybe the food isn’t kosher. The answer is that the other homeowner and whoever handles food at his home is believed to say the food is kosher. Here, too, since the question of the correct Hebrew date relates to when to fast on Yom Kippur and other prohibitions, of course, we should believe anyone.

The Rivash says that issues relating to the calendar are different. Already in the times of the Mishna, the great court in Yerushalayim stopped believing everyone that they witnessed the new moon. (R”H 22a) There were groups of people who attempted to intentionally mislead the Sages to distort the calendar. Therefore, safeguards were enacted to prevent this. We would have assumed that similar safeguards were enacted that prevented an average individual from informing us what day the Beis Din in Yerushalayim declared Rosh Chodesh. However, Rav Kahana informs us that the safeguards are not necessary for this situation, because no one would intentionally lie if his untruth will soon be publicly known.

The Sfas Emes and others explain the Gemara differently. It is true that generally any witness is believed in matters of issurim, but here the witness is going up against a rov, a majority. There is perhaps even a super-majority that indicates that every Elul has 29 days. The witness wants us to believe that this year is a very rare exception. To be believed against a majority or super-majority, standard believability is not enough. Rav Kahana must add that people would not lie about something that will become common knowledge.

According to the Rivash, a witness would ordinarily be believed about the calendar but needs to overcome the safeguards. According to the Sfas Emes, the witness would not ordinarily be believed in this case and is only believed because we assume he would not lie in this case. Perhaps a practical difference between them would be, in a situation where a person does not otherwise have any believability, can we believe him solely on the basis of the assumption that he would not lie about something that will soon be revealed?

Suppose there are nine men waiting to start a minyan. They notice a child who may or may not be bar mitzvah. Can they ask him if he is already 13? If he is 12, then halachically he does not have any believability. He would only be believed that he is 13 if we know that he is already 13!

It can be suggested that, according to the Sfas Emes, we can believe the child because he would not lie about something that will become known. If he told us that he is 13, and he is only 12, he will establish himself as a liar.

Perhaps according to the Rivash the child would not be believed because the assumption that a person wouldn’t lie only works in conjunction with the standard believability of a witness, which this youth doesn’t have. As a practical matter, Rav Shlomo Zalman, zt”l, said a boy is believed to say he is bar mitzvah because he wouldn’t lie when his falsehood would become obvious.

Anyone can be toivel a utensil in a mikveh, even a minor. Further, if a utensil fell into the mikveh by itself, the tevillah is nevertheless valid. However, one should not trust a child who is not bar/bas mitzvah that he/ she toiveled a utensil. Indeed, some are stringent and do not even trust a bar mitzvah boy until he has a beard or shows other signs of halachic maturity. This is true in other areas of halacha as well that relate to biblical mitzvos.

If someone received a tray as a present with cookies on it, may one ask his minor child to call the gift giver and ask if it was toiveled? It would seem in this case we may rely on Rav Shlomo Zalman’s ruling as well. The child would not lie and say it was toiveled, because the next time the parent meets or talks with the gift giver, the deception will be revealed.

However, these halachos are based on the assumption that people will not lie about things when the falsehood will become obvious. Rav Soloveitchik, zt”l, once remarked that this assumption is no longer true. It is unclear if meant his remark to be accepted halachically or if was he just bemoaning the sad state we live in. One can only wonder what he would say today!