Thread by @rabbisacks

Here is a thread from my Covenant & Conversation essay on #Korach called "Argument for the Sake of Heaven". You can read it in full here: bit.ly/2RVcABb and download the accompanying Family Edition here: bit.ly/2FQFg9G. #ShabbatShalom

#Judaism has sometimes been called a “culture of argument.” It is the only religious literature known to me whose key texts – the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, Mishnah, Talmud, the codes of Jewish law etc – are anthologies of arguments. That is the glory of Judaism.

But the Sages drew a fundamental distinction between two kinds of conflict: #argument for the sake of #truth and #argument for the sake of #victory.

In an argument for the sake of victory, what is at stake is not truth but power, and the result is that both sides suffer. If you win, I lose. But if I win, I also lose, because in diminishing you, I diminish myself. Argument for the sake of power is a lose-lose scenario.

In an argument for the sake of truth, both sides win, for each is willing to listen to the views of its opponents, and is thereby enlarged. In argument as the collaborative pursuit of truth, the participants use reason, logic, shared texts, and shared reverence for texts.

They do not use ad hominem arguments, abuse, contempt, or disingenuous appeals to emotion. Each is willing, if refuted, to say, “I was wrong.” There is no triumphalism in victory, no anger or anguish in defeat.

The story of #Korach remains the classic example of how argument can be dishonoured. “Argument for the sake of Heaven” is one of Judaism’s noblest ideals – conflict resolution by honouring both sides and employing humility in the pursuit of truth.