(ד) העוסק בצ"צ כעוסק בתורה דמי פירוש לענין לעמוד מתוכו להתפלל שגם זו שמחה היא לו שעוסק בצרכי צבור וי"מ דהיינו לענין דאינו צריך לפסוק להתפלל:
(4) One who is engaged in communal needs is like someone who is engaged in Torah, meaning, in regards to standing in midst of it to pray, that it too is a joy for the one who is engaged in communal needs. And there are those who explain that this [comparison] means that one does not need to interrupt [serving communal needs in order] to pray.
שבועות ל״ט א:כ״ב
כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה
Shevuot 39a:22
All of Israel are responsible for one another.
משנה אבות ב׳:ד׳
ד) .... הִלֵּל אוֹמֵר, אַל תִּפְרֹשׁ מִן הַצִּבּוּר, וְאַל תַּאֲמִין בְּעַצְמְךָ עַד יוֹם מוֹתְךָ, וְאַל תָּדִין אֶת חֲבֵרְךָ עַד שֶׁתַּגִּיעַ לִמְקוֹמוֹ, וְאַל תֹּאמַר דָּבָר שֶׁאִי אֶפְשָׁר לִשְׁמֹעַ, שֶׁסּוֹפוֹ לְהִשָּׁמַע. וְאַל תֹּאמַר לִכְשֶׁאִפָּנֶה אֶשְׁנֶה, שֶׁמָּא לֹא תִפָּנֶה
Pirkei Avot 2:4
(4) ... Hillel said: do not separate yourself from the community, Do not trust in yourself until the day of your death, Do not judge your fellow man until you have reached his place. Do not say something that cannot be understood [trusting] that in the end it will be understood. Say not: ‘when I shall have leisure I shall study;’ perhaps you will not have leisure.
1. In what circumstances have you been engaged in communal needs which took precedence over prayer? Can you imagine some (other) circumstances in which this would apply?
2. When have you felt and acted upon the legitimacy of, “All Israel are responsible for one another”? When have you felt that it can only be aspirational?
3. How might we understand Hillel’s phrase She’tagia L’Mekomo, Until you have reached their place? How do you connect that to the “day of your death” and something that may be understood later? What connects the various pieces of this Mishnah to Hillel’s idea of community?
4. They say that everyone should meditate for 30 minutes each day. Unless you don’t have time, in which case you should meditate for an hour. You made time today to study in chevrutah! What drove you to carve out the time for Torah Lishmah even though you don’t “have leisure”?
BT Gittin 61a
אֵין מְמַחִין בְּיַד עֲנִיֵּי גוֹיִם בְּלֶקֶט בְּשִׁכְחָה וּבְפֵאָה מִפְּנֵי דַּרְכֵי שָׁלוֹם תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן מְפַרְנְסִים עֲנִיֵּי גוֹיִם עִם עֲנִיֵּי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמְבַקְּרִין חוֹלֵי גוֹיִם עִם חוֹלֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְקוֹבְרִין מֵתֵי גוֹיִם עִם מֵתֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מִפְּנֵי דַּרְכֵי שָׁלוֹם.
The mishna teaches: One does not protest against poor gentiles who come to take gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and the produce in the corner of the field, which is given to the poor [pe’a], although they are meant exclusively for the Jewish poor, on account of the ways of peace. Similarly, the Sages taught in a baraita (Tosefta 5:4): One sustains poor gentiles along with poor Jews, and one visits sick gentiles along with sick Jews, and one buries dead gentiles along with dead Jews. All this is done on account of the ways of peace, to foster peaceful relations between Jews and gentiles.
BT Eruvin 13b
אָמַר רַבִּי אַבָּא אָמַר שְׁמוּאֵל: שָׁלֹשׁ שָׁנִים נֶחְלְקוּ בֵּית שַׁמַּאי וּבֵית הִלֵּל, הַלָּלוּ אוֹמְרִים: הֲלָכָה כְּמוֹתֵנוּ, וְהַלָּלוּ אוֹמְרִים: הֲלָכָה כְּמוֹתֵנוּ. יָצְאָה בַּת קוֹל וְאָמְרָה: אֵלּוּ וָאֵלּוּ דִּבְרֵי אֱלֹהִים חַיִּים הֵן, וַהֲלָכָה כְּבֵית הִלֵּל.
Rabbi Abba said that Shmuel said: For three years Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel disagreed. These said: The halakha is in accordance with our opinion, and these said: The halakha is in accordance with our opinion. Ultimately, a Divine Voice emerged and proclaimed: Both these and those are the words of the living God. However, the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Beit Hillel.
BT Sanhedrin 17b
ותניא כל עיר שאין בה עשרה דברים הללו אין תלמיד חכם רשאי לדור בתוכה בית דין מכין ועונשין וקופה של צדקה נגבית בשנים ומתחלקת בשלשה ובית הכנסת ובית המרחץ וביהכ"ס רופא ואומן ולבלר (וטבח) ומלמד תינוקות משום ר' עקיבא אמרו אף מיני פירא מפני שמיני פירא מאירין את העינים:
And it is taught in a baraita: A Torah scholar is not permitted to reside in any city that does not have these ten things: A court that has the authority to flog and punish transgressors; and a charity fund for which monies are collected by two people and distributed by three, as required by halakha. This leads to a requirement for another three people in the city. And a synagogue; and a bathhouse; and a public bathroom; a doctor; and a bloodletter; and a scribe [velavlar] to write sacred scrolls and necessary documents; and a ritual slaughterer; and a teacher of young children. With these additional requirements there are a minimum of 120 men who must be residents of the city. They said in the name of Rabbi Akiva: The city must also have varieties of fruit, because varieties of fruit illuminate the eyes.
1. Linguistically speaking, we have divided the planet’s 8 billion people into two categories: Yehudim (Jews) and Goyim Achairim (Other Nations). The planet, too, is divided into two regions: Israel (0.00004%) and the Galut (Diaspora, lit: Exile). Can you think of ways in which these divisions have served the Jewish people well?
2. Jewish law goes on to explain that in serving both Jewish and Gentile poor, we must collect charity with representatives of each community present. If you do interfaith work, how do you see it serving the Jewish community?
3. Hillel and Shammai had a Machloket L’Shem Shamayim, a disagreement for the sake of Heaven. What are the hallmarks of this kind of Machloket which distinguishes it from disagreements on social media? How can we be sure our disagreements are for the sake of Heaven, however you might understand that phrase? How do such disagreements serve the community?
4. Are the requirements for a Torah scholar’s residency in a city ultimately beneficial? Explore what you think should change or why you think this builds community? Also, what’s up with the fruit and how does that help community?
This “Statement of Principles” affirms the central tenets of Judaism – God, Torah and Israel – even as it acknowledges the diversity of Reform Jewish beliefs and practices.
ISRAEL
We are Israel, a people aspiring to holiness, singled out through our ancient covenant and our unique history among the nations to be witnesses to God’s presence. We are linked by that covenant and that history to all Jews in every age and place.
We are committed to the מצווה (mitzvah) of אהבת ישראל (ahavat Yisrael), love for the Jewish people, and to כלל ישראל (k’lal Yisrael), the entirety of the community of Israel.
Recognizing that כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה (kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba-zeh), all Jews are responsible for one another, we reach out to all Jews across ideological and geographical boundaries.
We embrace religious and cultural pluralism as an expression of the vitality of Jewish communal life in Israel and the Diaspora.
We are committed to strengthening the people Israel by making the synagogue central to Jewish communal life, so that it may elevate the spiritual, intellectual and cultural quality of our lives.
We are committed to מדינת ישראל (Medinat Yisrael), the State of Israel, and rejoice in its accomplishments. We affirm the unique qualities of living in ארץ ישראל (Eretz Yisrael), the land of Israel, and encourage עליה (aliyah), immigration to Israel.
We are committed to a vision of the State of Israel that promotes full civil, human and religious rights for all its inhabitants and that strives for a lasting peace between Israel and its neighbors.
We affirm that both Israeli and Diaspora Jewry should remain vibrant and interdependent communities. As we urge Jews who reside outside Israel to learn Hebrew as a living language and to make periodic visits to Israel in order to study and to deepen their relationship to the Land and its people, so do we affirm that Israeli Jews have much to learn from the religious life of Diaspora Jewish communities.
1. If “Bashevis” is right about each of us being a cemetery, what should that mean for us as the sexton or caretaker? What are our responsibilities and to whom are we responsible among the living and the dead?
2. If your Chevrutah is familiar with the TV show this is taken from, feel free to explore how the quote that R’ Shtishel shares is resonating for the audience with these three men at the table.
3. The excerpted section from the Reform Platform deals only with one of the three (God, Torah, Israel) pillars of Reform Judaism (Israel). The Reform Movement has revised the Platform multiple times since 1885. Do you think they got it right in this most recent iteration with regard to community?
4. What role do the three elements of Israel - Am (People), Eretz (Land), Medinat (State) - play in your conception of Jewish community? If you feel that your understanding of Reform Judaism doesn’t require all three elements, how might you explain that to someone who knows nothing about Judaism?
Recently I’ve been playing a game in my head called “There should be a ritual for. …” For example, there should be a ritual for when a felon has finished his sentence and is welcomed back whole into the community. There should be a ritual for when a family moves onto a street and the whole block throws a barbecue of welcome and membership. There should be a ritual for the kids in modern blended families, when they move in and join their lives together. There should be a ritual for when you move out of your house and everybody shares memories from the different rooms there….So great is our hunger for rituals that when we come upon one of the few remaining ones — weddings, bar mitzvahs, quinceañeras — we tend to overload them and turn them into expensive bloated versions of themselves.
Between these lavish exceptions, daily life goes unstructured, a passing flow of moments. This means we don’t do transitions well. Rituals often mark doorway moments, when we pass from one stage of life to another. They acknowledge that these passages are not just external changes but involve internal transformation….The philosopher Abraham Kaplan calculated that over 60 percent of Judaism’s 613 commandments involve physical ritual: lighting candles, ritual baths, etc. These deeds are a kind of language, a way of expressing things that are too deep for words.
Rituals also force a pause. Many wise people self-consciously divide their life into chapters, and they focus on the big question of what this chapter is for. Rituals encourage you to be more intentional about life. People can understand their lives’ meaning only if they step out of their immediate moment and see what came before them and what they will leave behind when they are gone. There should be a ritual for returning soldiers, in which the community assumes responsibility for the things the soldier had to do to defend the nation….A public civic compact, publicly sworn to, involving all, would allow towns to do a lot of things. It would be an occasion to redraw the boundary of the community and thereby include those who have been marginalized. It could be done on a spot that would become sacred, becoming the beating heart of the community. It could be an occasion to tell a new version of the town story; a community is a group of people who share a common story.
1. What are the rituals that we most need in Judaism today in order to strengthen the Jewish community? What Jewish rituals would - if secularized - be of the greatest benefit to the global community today?