What should our response be to living in a time in which we are aware of so many tragedies around the world as they happen? The seminal book of Musar, Misilat Yisharim, writes that we must always ask, “Mah chovati baolami”, What is my obligation in this world?” Everything which happens is a test for us. Will we respond, and if so, how?
A few days ago there was a devastating earthquake in Haiti. People are without shelter, water, food, housing, thousands were killed, and injured in a place which has suffered from devastation after devastation. When I hear that people there are fighting each other with knives for a bottle of water, I might imagine that I would be better than them, but I think in the same situation I would not be. I may blame their leaders, but this does not alleviate people’s suffering. My tendency, like many of us, is to say that terrible things happen in the world but they’re far away, I can’t solve them, that’s why they are governments and countries. But I would like to suggest that actually everything that happens is a personal test for us. Everything must prompt us to ask, “What is my obligation in this world?”.
The Torah is as wide as the sea. One of my great teachers, Rabbi Abraham Magency, saw the same message in every parsha, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Each week in his sermon he would address the way in which the parsha related to this idea. At the same time, in another part of the same city, another Rabbi saw the opposite message in each Torah portion- that those who are different from us must be rejected.
In this week’s Torah portion we read of the ben sorer umoreh, the rebellious child who can be brought to the court by his parents and put to death. The Talmud states in Sanhedrin 71a: “The ben sorer umoreh (the rebellious child who is put to death) never happened and never will happen. Why then was it written in the Torah? In order to provide more Torah to study and receive reward.”
Today I was listening to a Rabbi speak about the ben sorer. He asked the obvious question- there is enough Torah already, why provide a law which has no application just to increase the volume of pages in the Torah? His answer was that though it may not be practically applied, it comes to teach something, namely, in his view, that we should love God more than our children and reject our children if they do not stay on the good path of Torah. I wondered to myself why he did not take a different approach. The same oral Torah says “Love peace and pursue peace, love all creatures and bring them to Torah ”, and myriad other similar phrases.
The answer is that we must have a tradition, an approach, with which to filter all of the statements in the Talmud. I believe the filter must be one of mercy and love. This is the Torah’s foundation. It’s why the law is almost always like Hillel, and it’s why Rabbi Akiva says loving your neighbor is the foundational rule in the Torah. This is not meant to alleviate us of obligation, but to create an even deeper one.
We can say to ourselves, the people in Haiti are not Jews, not my responsibility, they are responsible for their own demise, and I’m sure we could find a Jewish statement to back us up. But we must not. We must say it is our obligation to love others as ourselves and we must ask, “Mah chovati baolami”, “What is my obligation in the world.” As Rav Kook put it, when others are in pain we must be atheists and not rely on God to aid them- we must.