{"id":46115,"date":"2018-12-20T15:28:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T13:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=46115"},"modified":"2022-07-15T16:19:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T13:19:02","slug":"the-covenant-of-collective-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-covenant-of-collective-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"The Covenant Of Collective Responsibility"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[395,783,354,412],"acf":{"old_id":"46115","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"116","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Even when Jews are scattered geographically, we still have a shared fate and destiny","content":"

The book of Leviticus reaches a climax with an account of the blessings and curses attendant on Israel\u2019s obedience, or lack of it, to the terms of the covenant. The blessings are relatively brief. The curses are, by contrast, set out at length and with elemental power. They are terrifying. To this day Jews recite them in a low voice, barely above a whisper. This is part of the passage:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them. <\/span>They will stumble over one another<\/span><\/em> as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies\u201d (Lev. 26: 36-37).<\/span><\/p>\n

The italicised phrase became the proof-text of the rabbinic doctrine of collective responsibility:\u00a0<\/span>\u201c\u2018They shall stumble over one another\u2019 \u2013 one <\/span>because<\/span><\/em> of another. This teaches that all Israel are sureties for one another\u201d (Sifra, Bechukotai, 2:7).<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the sole source in the rabbinic literature for the principle<\/span><\/em>.<\/em> It first appears in the <\/span>Sifra<\/span><\/i>, a halakhic midrash of the Mishnaic period, and is quoted several times in the Babylonian Talmud. It is, however, an exceptionally strange text on which to base the idea that all Jews are responsible for one another…<\/span><\/p>\n

The question [the rabbis] faced was not: Where do we find in the Bible the concept that \u2018all Israel are responsible for one another\u2019? The whole Pentateuch presupposes this concept. But that is because it speaks of Israel as a nation of \u00a0neighbours and fellow citizens who live and act together and whose actions self-evidently affect one another. The question that faced the sages was: Where do we find that this principle still applies <\/span>even when the Jewish people is exiled, dispersed and shorn of power<\/span><\/em>,<\/em> when it is no longer bound together by geographical proximity or membership in the same body politic?<\/span><\/p>\n

There are, in fact, only two passages in the Pentateuch that speak about such an eventuality, namely the two passages of curses which envision Israel defeated and scattered in the land of their enemies. \u00a0That is why the sages chose the text, \u2018They will stumble over one another\u2019, understanding it to mean, \u2018They will stumble because of one another\u2019s sins.\u2019 For it was this text, referring to a time when Jews were in exile, that hinted at the profound spiritual truth that even though Jews were shattered politically and scattered geographically, they were still a nation. Even at such a time they are bound by a covenant of mutual responsibility. Jewish fate and destiny are indivisible.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Future Tense<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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