Dependence/Independence
Individual/Collective
Responsibility/Carefree
Loyalty/Liberty
הִלֵּל אוֹמֵר, אַל תִּפְרֹשׁ מִן הַצִּבּוּר.
Hillel said: do not separate yourself from the community.
Sage Advice: Commentary on Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg
Being part of a community is essential for a proper and healthy life. If one becomes so self-centered as to cut loose from community in order to live only for himself, quality of life will be lost. Our very humanness shrinks when we lose our connections to a group beyond ourselves.
If one separates even for the purpose of achieving a higher level of piety and righteousness, his judgement will become skewed and his values distorted.
The challenge is not just to have good ideas or values, but to make them work in the life of an actual community.
בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שמות יג), וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר, בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה ה' לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרָיִם.
In every generation a man is obligated to regard himself as though he personally had gone forth from Egypt, because it is said, “And you shall tell your son on that day, saying: ‘It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt” (Exodus 13:8).
רָשָׁע מָה הוּא אוֹמֵר? מָה הָעֲבוֹדָה הַזּאֹת לָכֶם. לָכֶם – וְלֹא לוֹ. וּלְפִי שֶׁהוֹצִיא אֶת עַצְמוֹ מִן הַכְּלָל כָּפַר בְּעִקָּר. וְאַף אַתָּה הַקְהֵה אֶת שִׁנָּיו וֶאֱמוֹר לוֹ: "בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה ה' לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרָיִם". לִי וְלֹא־לוֹ. אִלּוּ הָיָה שָׁם, לֹא הָיָה נִגְאָל:
The wicked one, what does he say? “What is this service to you?” He says “to you” but not to him! By thus excluding himself from the community he has denied the foundations of our faith. You, therefore, blunt his teeth and say to him: “It is because of this that the Lord did for me when I left Egypt;” “for me”—but not for him! If he had been there he would not have been redeemed.
“Israel has sinned” (Joshua 7:11). Rabbi Abba bar Zavda says: From here it may be inferred that even when the Jewish people have sinned, they are still called “Israel.” Rabbi Abba says: This is in accordance with the adage that people say: Even when a myrtle is found among thorns, its name is myrtle and people call it myrtle.
The Voice of My Beloved Knocks, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik
A preacher of the last generation put it well. He said that the Jewish people may be compared to the man with two heads, concerning whom the question was posed in the house of study: How is he to be viewed for purpose of inheritance? Does he take two portions like a dual person? Or does he take one portion like a single unified individual? One may similarly ask: Has the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the land of its exile and its taking root in various surroundings resulted in its spiritual and psychic dissolution? Or has the unity of the people not been abrogated, despite the fact that it has grown many heads, that it expresses itself in a multitude of language and cultures, in differing customs and varying practices? In a word: Is the Jewish diaspora a unity or not? The answer- the preacher continued- to the question of the unity of the Jewish people is identical with the ruling issued in the house of study regarding the question of the unity of the two headed heir. Let boiling water be poured on one of his heads, stated the judge, and let us see the reaction of the other head. If the other head cries out in pain, then both heads blend into one complete unified personality and the heir will take one portion. However, if the second head does not feel the pangs of the first head, then we have two personalities coupled together in one body and they take two portions. The same holds true with regard to the question of the unity of the Jewish people. The authoritative ruling is that as long as there is shared suffering in the manner of “I will be with him in trouble” (Psalms 91:15), there is unity.
"Whatever Happened to the Jewish People," Commentary (June 2006), Steven M. Cohen & Jack Wertheimer
Hosting Mikhail Gorbachev at their first summit in Washington, D.C. in December 1987, Ronald Reagan regaled his guest with a description of a mass rally held in the city just two days earlier to demand unrestricted emigration rights for Soviet Jews. Over a quarter--‐million Americans, mostly Jews, had gathered on the Mall, some coming from as far away as Hawaii, to march under banners demanding “Let My People Go.” So moved had Reagan been by this display of ethnic solidarity in the name of democratic rights that he spoke about it for five long minutes as his visitor uneasily tried to shift the conversation to a safer topic, like arms control.