A force for good assumes a willingness to give

Koach hataya — literally, “a force of deception” — is one of the most difficult roles a soldier can assume. This is the force designated to draw the enemy out of hiding so a usually larger force hidden in the wings can then destroy it. 

I once met a fellow who had been part of just such a unit, fighting deep in the jungles of Vietnam in the Tet offensive of 1968. He was very good at what he did, and often he was sent ahead with the task of making enough noise to draw the enemy out.

He recalled on one occasion being able to feel the eyes of a thousand enemy soldiers watching him as he walked down a footpath in the jungle. His mission that day had been to act as though he was unaware of them, as he walked, so as to lull them into thinking they were completely hidden, allowing his unit to call in the airstrike that would turn their jungle hideout into an instant inferno of fire and destruction just moments later. 

He told me that after living a life so immersed in deception and cunning it had taken him some time to readjust to civilian life where truth and honesty could replace the deception. Where indeed is the fine line between truth and deception?

This week, we will encounter the figure in the Bible that most represents deception: Lavan, who will become the father-in-law of Yaakov. In one of the vilest deceptions in the Torah, he will actually switch sisters on Yaakov, tricking him into marrying Leah the older sister, instead of Rachel, the love of Yaakov’s life whom he had intended to marry. Indeed, Jewish tradition suggests that the name Lavan, which means white, represents the most reprehensible form of deception: the two-faced lie, wherein someone pretends to be a friend, whilst all the time scheming behind the scenes.

What is more dishonorable after all, than the politician who says one thing in public, while strategizing precisely the opposite behind closed doors? Or the Arab statesmen who stand in the corridors of Washington professing a desire for peace with the Jews while preaching hatred for them in the Arab press and children’s schoolbooks?