Tarof Toraf Yoseph

“Tarof Toraf Yoseph” is Ya’aqov’s cry when the bloodied coat is laid before him (Bereshit 37:33). The garment is the evidence, and the evidence is a lie.

The piece begins there and turns to a harder case: a majority of rabbis rules, the ruling is wrong, and the error is visible. What does the Torah ask of the one who sees it? The argument passes through the 1992 election and its aftermath, and closes with Iyov’s “words without knowledge” (35:16) and Moshe’s command to separate from a congregation that has gone astray (Bemidbar 16:21).