1. How do eating and drinking contribute to happiness?
2. According to this text, how would you define happiness?
3. What is your own definition of happiness? How does it fit with this text?
| Original |
|---|
|
[Empathic justice] seeks to make people identify themselves with each other – with each other’s needs, with each other’s hopes and aspirations, with each other’s defeats and frustrations. Because Jews have known the distress of slaves and the loneliness of strangers, we are to project ourselves into their souls and make their plight our own.
|
1. What is empathy and what is its role in social activism?
2. How do we make the plight of others our own? To what extent?
| Original |
|---|
|
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And, the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. Because of indifference one dies before one actually dies.
|
1. Why does Wiesel equate indifference to death? Do you agree?
2. According to this text, what is the purpose of living?
3. Can you relate to Wiesel's philosophy? How might you apply this statement?
| Translation | Original |
|---|---|
| If a person of learning participates in public affairs and serves as judge or arbiter, that person gives stability to the land... But if a person sits in their home and says to themselves, “What have the affairs of society to do with me?... Why should I trouble myself with the people’s voices of protest? Let my soul dwell in peace!”—if one does this, they overthrow the world. [translation by Hazon] |
מַלְכָּהּ שֶׁל תּוֹרָה, בְּמִשְׁפָּט שֶׁהוּא עוֹשֵׂה, מַעֲמִיד אֶת הָאָרֶץ... אִם מֵשִׂים אָדָם עַצְמוֹ כִּתְרוּמָה הַזּוּ שְׁמוּשְׁלֶכֵת בְּזָוִיוֹת הַבָּיִת וְאוֹמֵר: מָה לִי בְּטוֹרַח הַצִּבּוּר ?מָה לִי בְּדִינֵיהֶם? מָה לִי לִשְׁמוֹעַ קוֹלָם? שָׁלוֹם עָלֶיךָ נַפְשִׁי! הֲרֵי זֶה מַחֲרִיב אֶת הָעוֹלָם.
|
1. When do you sit at home when you might stand up and make a difference? Why is it often easier to do so?
2. What does this text say about the relationship between power and responsibility?
3. “Person of learning” refers to those in society who have training, a higher profession, or power of some other kind. This text is specifically speaking to those who are in power in society – and who still have responsibility to act for others. In today’s society, who would you replace “person of learning” with?
1. How do you react to these conditionals? Does this list make sense?
2. How do we define "sustenance?" What types of sustenance don't exist without Torah?
1. What does it mean to hide your eyes? In what ways to do we hide our eyes every day?
2. What would happen if we never hid our eyes? How could we work toward that goal in a way this is sustainable for us?
עֹשֶׂה מִשְׁפַּט יָתוֹם וְאַלְמָנָה וְאֹהֵב גֵּר לָתֶת לוֹ לֶחֶם וְשִׂמְלָה: וַאֲהַבְתֶּם אֶת הַגֵּר כִּי גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם:
1. In what ways does this text suggest that we mimic God?
2. What is God's responsibility to us and what is our responsibility to others? What are the different sources of these responsibilities?
3. This text reminds the reader of Israelite slavery. In what ways is a history of slavery connected to doing justice and loving the stranger?
1. What does it mean that your fellow's means fail with you?
2. Why does the law specify whether a stranger or a settler?
3. How would this law read if it were on a national scale, rather than a personal directive?
1. According to the Ibn Ezra, what is the responsibility of a witness?
2. What injustices do you witness today? Are you responsible to fix them? How?
| Translation | Original |
|---|---|
| This is the bread of affliction our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat; let all who are in need come share our Passover. |
הא לחמא עניא די אכלו אבהתנא בארעא דמצרים. כל דכפין ייתי ויכול, כל דצריך ייתי ויפסח.
|
1. What does "our Passover" refer to that we must share with the hungry?
2. What is the importance of remembering a time of affliction now that we are free?
3. How can we carry the lessons of our own (past or present) affliction to inform our current acts?