Can Judaism be Community-Optional?

(17) Perchance there is among you some man or woman, or some clan or tribe, whose heart is even now turning away from Adonai our God to go and worship the gods of those nations—perchance there is among you a stock sprouting poison weed and wormwood. (18) When such a one hears the words of these sanctions, he may fancy himself immune, thinking, “I shall have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart”—that the watered be swept away with the dry. (19) Adonai will never forgive him; rather will Adonai’s anger and passion rage against that man, till every sanction recorded in this book comes down upon him, and Adonai blots out his name from under heaven. (20) Adonai will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for misfortune, in accordance with all the sanctions of the covenant recorded in this sefer Torah.

(1) Oh, disloyal sons! —declares Adonai— Making plans Against My wishes, Weaving schemes Against My will, Thereby piling Guilt on guilt— (2) Who set out to go down to Egypt Without asking Me, To seek refuge with Pharaoh, To seek shelter under the protection of Egypt. (3) The refuge with Pharaoh shall result in your shame; The shelter under Egypt’s protection, in your chagrin. (4) Though his officers are present in Zoan, And his messengers reach as far as Hanes, (5) They all shall come to shame Because of a people that does not avail them, That is of no help or avail, But [brings] only chagrin and disgrace. (6) The “Beasts of the Negeb” Pronouncement. Through a land of distress and hardship, Of lion and roaring king-beast, Of viper and flying seraph, They convey their wealth on the backs of asses, Their treasures on camels’ humps, To a people of no avail. (7) For the help of Egypt Shall be vain and empty. Truly, I call this, “They are a threat that has ceased.”

In my opinion, the word included [Hebrew: sefot] denotes an accretion, as in “that sin be added [Hebrew: sefot]” [Isaiah 30: 1]. The meaning is: “all will be well with me, even though I follow the evil impulses of my heart, because I will survive through the merit of the righteous; they are many, whereas I am just a single sinner”. For this reason, Scripture immediately says, God will not consent to pardon him — that is, he will be instantly destroyed.

The image is of something wet adding moisture to something parched. Scripture compares the righteous man to land that is watered (as in, “like a tree planted by streams of water” [Psalms 1: 3]) and the wicked man to land that is parched (as in “like a juniper bush in the desert” [Jeremiah 17: 6]). Evidence for this interpretation is provided by the beginning of the passage: “a root developing into hemlock and worm-wood” [: 17] — which only occurs in a dry area.

(4) Every man should to behold himself throughout the whole year in a light of being evenly balanced between innocence and guilt, and look upon the entire world as if evenly balanced between innocence and guilt; thus, if he commit one sin, he will overbalance himself and the whole world to the side of guilt, and be a cause of its destruction; but if he perform one duty, behold, he will overbalance himself and the whole world to the side of virtue, and bring about his own and their salvation and escape, even as it is said: "But the righteous is an everlasting foundation" (Prov. 10. 25), it is he, by whose righteousness he overbalanced the whole world to virtue and saved it. And, because of this matter, it became the custom of the whole house of Israel to excel in alms-giving, in good conduct and in the performance of duties during the intervening days of Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom ha-Kippurim above what they do during the whole year. It also became a universal custom to rise early during those ten days, to deliver in the synagogues prayers of supplication and ardor till the dawn of the day.⁵Kiddushin, 39b–40a. C.