The Mishna in Pirkei Avot says that the world rests on din, on emet, and on shalom. If you look in the Rabbeinu Yonah on the Mishna, so Rabbeinu Yonah sounds like he's giving two different explanations, even though he doesn't separate them with an inamei or a ve-od yesh lomar, he's sort of one runs into the other, but it seems like it's two different explanations for why we have to be so makpid on emet. One is Rabbeinu Yonah says, because let's say, let's say you ask me what time it is, so it's really, it's really 12:40, and I say, I don't say approximately, but I say it's 12:42. It's 12:42. A great nafka mina if you're trying to catch the 12:41 shuttle or something, so there's a nafka mina. But assuming that there is no, no 12:41 shuttle, so does it make such a big, big difference whether I tell you it's 12:40 and tell you whether it's 12:42? What's the big deal? So one explanation Rabbeinu Yonah gives is that if a person isn't makpid on a kotzo shel yud of emet in things which ein hachi nami are intrinsically unimportant, so then he, he, he lets a mida of sheker or a mida of laxity when it comes to emet take root in him, and then ultimately, inevitably, that's going to surface in things which taka are important. That lack of dikduk, that lack of commitment to precision and accuracy of emet ultimately is going to spill over and it's going to surface in what we would recognize as an important context. That's a gevaldige yesod in Torat HaMidot, something which Rav Yisrael Salanter emphasized a lot, that we, we try to, but we fool ourselves in thinking that we can compartmentalize. We fool ourselves in thinking that if we're sloppy and inefficient in דברים של מה בכך that that sloppiness and that inefficiency won't ultimately affect דברים העומדים ברומו של עולם. That's why Rav Yisrael Salanter's Yud Gimmel Midot, he emphasizes nekiut and things like that, because as much as we try to, a person can't successfully compartmentalize. If a person isn't, isn't careful to think clearly, isn't careful to, to set a high standard for himself in general in life, so then even in things to which he does attach importance, it's going to be affected. That's one, one explanation Rabbeinu Yonah, and that is an important yesod in life. Then Rabbeinu Yonah has another equally important, equally fundamental explanation. Rabbeinu Yonah says there's no such thing as דברים של מה בכך. חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת.
Emet is ממדותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. If emet is ממדותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, so then there's a chiyuv mi-ta'am v'halachta bidrachav to be makpid on emet. So even if I know for a fact that there's no 12:41 shuttle that anyone has to catch, if I know that it's 12:40, it's a violation of v'halachta bidrachav to say that it's 12:42. It's not emet. It's not emet. Emet is ממדותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. There doesn't have to be any other nafka mina. There doesn't have to be a po'al yotzei. No, everything is a shayla in emet. Everything is a shayla in emet. If I don't know exactly what time it is, okay, so it's approximately 12:40. But מה לשונך לא לומר איני יודע. We sort of imbibe, I don't think it's only our culture, I think it's probably been throughout history like that, but as old as I look and as old as I am, I can't exactly give edut throughout history, I can't go back that far. But certainly in our culture we imbibe a sense, I don't know, say when you're in elementary school. Okay. So when, when, when, when, when we're in elementary school, I think, Baruch Hashem, we have enough of a sense of emes that, you know, blatant cheating is something that scandalizes us. The thought of it if we ever saw it certainly scandalizes us. But we sort of do imbibe that what you can get away with when the teacher's not looking is okay. L'maiseh, I don't really agree with it. I'm not really machshiv it. No, no, no, no, no. And the problem is that basically we don't outgrow it. That we, we graduate elementary school, we go weiter in life. But that kind of attitude, that everything, just mitzad shehu emes, mitzad shehu emes. Give you a mashal. Someone, someone comes and wants you to do something, wants you to make a phone call for them, wants you to do something. And maybe for whatever reason, sometimes we think we're busy, maybe sometimes we even really are a little bit busy. Or for whatever reason we're not so enthused about making this, this phone call, there's going to be a little bit of discomfort associated with it for whatever reason. Yeah, but you don't want to... the guy's going to give you a little bit of a hard time if you, if you say you're not going to make the call. Yeah, yeah, I'll call, I'll call. It's a machlokes in the Gemara, but the Rishonim say this application of it is not talei on the machlokes in the beginning of Shavuos Shtayim Basra. But if a person says he's going to do something and doesn't do it, that's sheker. That's sheker. So it doesn't make a difference, maybe that request was unreasonable. And, and maybe a person didn't think clearly, didn't think, didn't think... l'maiseh, if I said I'm going to make a phone call, it's a shaileh of sheker not to make the phone call. And it's a very, very important... Hakadosh Baruch Hu is, is emes. Hashem Elokeichem Emes. So it stands to reason that whatever degree that we're not emesdik, that that's going to be a mosach hamavdil beineinu u'vein Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is emes, so sheker can't approach, it can't approach emes. So we have to be as emesdik as possible. It means that a person has to think very carefully before saying he's going to do anything. Before saying he's going to do anything, a person doesn't have to say bli neder I'll eat this apple. Doesn't have to say that. Because it's not a mitzvah. Don't tell your mother, but contrary to what your mother's been telling you all these years, it's not a mitzvah d'oraisa or even d'rabanan that you have to eat the apple. So everyone agrees that if you're not dealing with a mitzvah, unless you say a lashon shvua, it's not going to be binding like a shvua. If you say I'm going to learn, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, so then according to some shitos it's binding even without a lashon shvua, even without a lashon neder, so you have to say bli neder. I'm going to eat an apple, so not a shaileh of shvua or neder, but a shaileh of emes it is. A shaileh of emes it is. So a person has to think very carefully before he says what he's going to do. Before a person comments on, on, on a metzius. Okay, so where it's understood that a person is sort of exaggerating for dramatic effect, that's not assur. דברי תורה בלשון הבאי, right, the Gemara in Chullin tells us that the Torah exaggerates. So when it's clear that, that, that a person is exaggerating for a rhetorical effect, it's not, it's not assur. So there are exceptions when, when it's clear that, that a person is not, not intending to say what's literal. In certain contexts it's clear that, that you, that you exaggerate. This is nogea to the question people debate when it comes to shidduchim. If everyone assumes that... that you're going to deduct two years from the woman's age, so then if you'll tell the real age, so then so if she's really 25 and you'll say she's 25, they'll assume oh she must have just celebrated her 30th birthday and okay so, so there are exceptions but the yesod is emess is מדתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. To the extent that we're not emestik, that's a masach hamavdil and it can't be, it can't be, not just a ben Torah, it can't be that a Jew ever allows the attitude or the posture to seep in I'll see what they notice, I'll see what they don't notice. It can't be, it can't be. Because that's not emestik. If a person takes upon himself certain chiyuvim, so it can't be I'll look to see if they take attendance, they don't take attendance, whether they notice, whether they don't notice, whether they look at the bechinos, they don't look at the bechinos. If a person takes upon himself obligations, it's a shailoh of emess. It's a shailoh of על הדין על האמת ועל השלום and that emess is מדתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא because חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת. Something to avoyda.