Emes and Sheker

I heard Rabbi Reisman retell a story about Rabbi Avigdor Miller when he was a young student in Slabodka.

In Slabodka they used to have a mussar vaad once per month to discuss the midah, character trait, they would work on trying to improve. Rabbi Miller kept quiet in his humility in the presence of the older students. One month someone suggested to choose emes, truth ,as the midah of the month. But, no, an older student objected, they should choose, sheker, falsehood instead. They should practice sheker in a positive way by pretending to reach higher levels of perfection, doing more and learning more. Use sheker to make an aliya, to foster their growth and raise their standard. Maybe the behavior would stick, the older student thought. Rabbi Miller said he was right.