Parashat B’Har Sinai

Talmud Bavli, Tractate 53a It was taught: They also said about Hillel the Elder that when he would rejoice at the Joy of the Water Drawing Place he said this: “If I am here, everything is here, but if I am not here, who is here?”

Talmud Yerushalmi, Tractate 8:4 It was taught: A band of Jewish people which was traveling along the road met up with gentiles and the latter said, “Give us one of you and we will kill him, or if not we are going to kill all of you.” Even if all of them are certain to be killed, they must not turn over one soul of Israel. If they singled out one specific person, the Jews should turn him over and not be killed.

Rabbi Shimon, the son of Lakish, said, “This is so only when the person singled out is guilty of a capital offense.” But Rabbi Yochanan said, “Even though he is not guilty of a capital offense, he is turned over.”

Talmud Bavli, Tractate Ta’anit 11a Our Rabbis taught: When the people of Israel is immersed in suffering and one sets himself apart from them by not acting appropriately, the two ministering angels which accompany a person come and place their hands upon his head and say, “This fellow who sets himself apart from the community will not witness the comforting of the community.”

…Rather a person should suffer with the community for thus we have found concerning Moses, our Teacher, who made himself suffer with the community, as it is stated, “The hands of Moses grew heavy, so they took a stone and placed it under him and he sat upon it.” But didn’t Moses have even one cushion or one pillow to sit upon? Rather, this is what Moses said to himself about his action: “Since Israel is immersed in suffering, so I too will be with them in suffering.” And everyone who makes himself suffer with the community merits seeing the comforting of the community.

Yehudah HaLevi, The Kuzari, 3:19 And one who prays only for himself is like a person who, at a time of danger to the city, would be satisfied with the well-being of his home and does not want to participate with the people of the city in assuring the well-being of their city walls. The outlay of such a person is large and his danger is constant, whereas the man who participates with the community, his outlay is small and his security is constant. For whatever the one person does not manage to do another comes and completes it. And thus the city will endure with the greatest completeness that is possible for it and all its people will enjoy its blessings by way of a small outlay of time, money, etc. And all is according to law and through agreement or consensus. This is what Plato calls outlay according to law: the participation of the part in the whole.

But from the moment that the individual disregards his being a part of the whole, in other words, disregards his duty to work for the sake of the well-being of the community of which he is a part and decides to keep his usefulness to the community to himself- he is a sinner against the whole people and especially against his soul. For the individual within a community is like one limb in the wholeness of the body; for in fact if the arm would hold back its blood when there is a need for draining it, the body would come to an end and the arm would end along with it. Certainly it is proper for an individual to bear even the bitterness of death for the sake of saving the whole people, but at the very least the individual needs to think about his part in the whole people so that he will always do his part and not disregard it.

Regine Azria, The Community Paradigm In order to counterbalance the disintegrating effects of dispersion, Jews have lived gathered into communities. Most often, these communities were imposed by the local authorities, but they were also the collective expression of the Jews’ will to live together, separate from the rest of the society, according to the requirement of their Law. Despite many conflicting issues that may have conspired to undermine their group cohesion, Jews were condemned to live together within a system in which the individual was an integral part of the whole, was absorbed by the group and whose existence was worth living only through the group. Obviously, this community paradigm, which used to be the complement to Diaspora in the shaping of Jews’ identities, does not work any longer in modern open societies. Individualism, secularization, social and geographical mobility, social, cultural and ethnic mixing, inherent in modernity and in the huge human gatherings of the modern metropolis, have accelerated the process of disintegration of the ancestral and traditional community ties, and have promoted the formation of new types of aggregations of people. Today’s “community” has little in common with the community of modern times. Apart from the fact that they are alternative, open, voluntary and freely chosen groups, which one may enter and exit whenever one wants to, these new aggregates concern and are attractive to only a small portion of Jews. To a larger portion of Jews, the Jewish community is no longer the primary framework of their socialization process or their sociability. It is not taken for granted as their everyday human, social or cultural environment of immersion. They are no longer immersed in such communities. For more than a century, the social trajectories of Jews have unfolded outside of the Jewish community framework, outside of its sphere of influence and control.

For most Jews, the Jewish community is virtual or dispersed while still connected (thanks to the many sophisticated long-distance communication tools); it is an intermittent reality coalescing only from time to time in significant, exceptional, highly emotional circumstances.

More compelling are the new aggregations grounded in radical observance. Yet, as most of their members are neophytes, returnees initially socialized within secular environments, there is no doubt that new-Orthodox communities are by-products of modernity, by-products of the disillusions generated by modernity.

This neo-Orthodox revival reverts to a holistic world vision challenging modern individualism. It reverts also to a holistic world vision of traditional according to which religious law is a determinant in all life circumstances: private, professional, political. To the individuals who make that life-choice, community life is central. The paradox of this revival, though, consists in the fact that, rather than being a transmitted attitude, the acceptance of total obedience to Jewish law, in its most radical form, derives from a free individual decision and choice.

We might ask whether contemporary Jews consider themselves rather as autonomous individuals than as the inter-dependent members of a would-be Jewish people? Obviously, there is no clear, unambiguous answer to this question. Most Jews consider themselves simultaneously as autonomous individuals and as solidarity-bound members of a collective history.

Edith Rose Brown Many years ago, when I was first starting to understand philanthropy and the power of giving back to help the less fortunate, my mother, Selma Nepom Brown told me something that has stayed with me for decades. She said that while it was important to support a number of worthy charitable organizations throughout my life, I needed to remember that “only Jews give to Jews.”

That simple, yet powerful statement is as true today as it was when mom first said it. There will be others who support the Red Cross, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Planned Parenthood and OPB; But if we, as Jews, fail to support Jewish causes and organizations, who else will?

Americans of all faiths have greatly reduced their level of charitable donations this past year. The economy, along with the Madoff debacle, has impacted the level of services Jewish charities can provide to the less fortunate, and need has skyrocketed. Perhaps this year, you and your family can consider making a meaningful gift to your favorite Jewish non-profit organization. Doing so will go a long way toward helping others who are struggling the most this year, and will provide a powerful and valuable lesson to your children.