Areyvut: Responsibility for the Jewish Family

The Gemara asks: And with regard to all of the other transgressions in the Torah, isn't the entire world punished since it is written: “And they shall stumble one upon another” (Leviticus 26:37)? This means they shall stumble, one from the wrongdoing of another, which teaches that the entire Jewish people are responsible for one another.

(24) If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not act toward them as a creditor; exact no interest from them. (25) If you take your neighbor’s garment in pledge, you must return it before the sun sets; (26) it is the only available clothing—it is what covers the skin. In what else shall [your neighbor] sleep? Therefore, if that person cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate.

(27) You shall not revile God, nor put a curse upon a chieftain among your people.

את עמי TO ANY OF MY PEOPLE — If you have to choose between lending money to My people and a gentile, My people come first; if between a poor man and one who is better off, the poor man comes first; if between your own poor (poor relatives) and other poor of your city, your own poor come first; if between the poor of your own city and the poor of another city, the poor of your own city come first (Mekhilta; Bava Metzia 71a). And this is how the above explanation is implied in the text: “If you lend money” — את עמי “lend it to My people”, and not to a gentile; and to which one of My people? את העני, to the poor; and to which poor? עמך to him that is with you (i. e. who is with you in relationship and is with you in thy city). [Another explanation of את עמי is: Thou shalt not treat him disrespectfully when lending him money, for he is עמי — though in need he is still “My people”!

(23) But if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life, (24) eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, (25) burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

(21) You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan.

(1) You must not carry false rumors; you shall not join hands with the guilty to act as a malicious witness:

(4) When you encounter your enemy’s ox or ass wandering, you must take it back. (5) When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless help raise it.

(9) You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt. (10) Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; (11) but in the seventh you shall let it rest and lie fallow. Let the needy among your people eat of it, and what they leave let the wild beasts eat. You shall do the same with your vineyards and your olive groves. (12) Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor, in order that your ox and your ass may rest, and that your home-born slave and the stranger may be refreshed.

(6) Ḥizkiya taught: “Israel are scattered sheep” (Jeremiah 50:17). Israel is likened to sheep. Just as, if a sheep is struck on its head or one of its limbs all its limbs feel it, so it is with Israel; one of them sins and all of them feel it. “Shall one man sin, [and You will rage against the entire congregation?]” (Numbers 16:22). Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai taught: This is analogous to people who were sitting in a ship. One of them took a drill and began drilling a hole. His counterparts said to him: ‘What are you sitting and doing?’ He said to them: ‘Why do you care? Am I not drilling under myself?’ They said to him: ‘Because the water will rise and flood the ship we are on!’