Listening to the parashah being read yesterday, I was reminded of a short speech I made eight years ago at the Kiddush for our daughter, Avital, who was born in the immediate aftermath of a severe Jerusalem snowstorm. The unexpected storm left many people trapped in their homes, and much of our neighbourhood without electricity over a freezing weekend.
I noted in my speech how people’s reactions varied. Everyone was aware of the great difficulties that many in our area were experiencing. But while for some this was just an interesting discussion point, several local residents took the initiative to actively check up on the welfare of the elderly and young families, and to arrange necessary assistance where possible. (For the record I was busy desperately googling DIY home-delivery advice as the due date came and went!).
Judaism Reclaimed explores this concept in connection with the biblical instruction to “Love one’s fellow as oneself”, a command that Rabbi Akiva labelled a “major principle of the Torah”. Rabbi S. R. Hirsch questions why treating others as one wishes to be treated oneself should be considered such a weighty religious matter. After all, a general principle of reciprocity can be found in almost all cultures and reflects not just religious but also secular humanist thought. It is a basic prerequisite for a functioning civilised society.
In response, Rav Hirsch highlights that the commandment refers to a person acquiring a particular attitude and identification with others rather than merely accepting a practical code of conduct. This concept was expanded by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik who contrasted two very different ways of performing an act of kindness.
Regarding a normal act of kindness, he says:
“I am committed to genuinely helping a poor man, am genuinely committed to furthering his wellbeing … [M]y personality is still individual, still unique, still all-exclusive. I help out the Thou but he remains other to me.”
There is, however, a far higher and more elevated way of empathising and identifying with those who are poor and suffering so that:
“… my personality shifts from being all-exclusive to being all-inclusive. The poor man is no longer an other separate from me. In God-like fashion my helping him out becomes a way of letting him share in my existence and reality. My helping him out thus becomes an act of imitatio Dei, an act of God-like hesed in the sense that I do not simple give to him, but I identify with him”.
This second level of helping others means that kindness is no longer merely a ‘good deed’ but rather consists of a radical shift in the person’s perspective. By genuinely caring about another individual’s welfare, one ceases to think of one’s personal needs and the needs of others as distinct. The reason that Rabbi Akiva deemed that treating others as one would want to treat them is a fundamental Torah principle is that, properly performed, it radically changes a person’s entire perspective and outlook on the world. From a selfish inward-thinking path through life to a “divine” altruistic outward focus. (Judaism Reclaimed develops this idea further in order to address the conclusion of Moreh Nevuchim).
Regardless of whether our life circumstances lead us to heroism or activism, we are all capable of empathy and attempting to look at the world through the lens of others, feeling their pain as well as acknowledging it. Rashi teaches us that this shift from selfish-human to altruistic-divine perspective requires an active decision. It is not always easy to genuinely share the troubles of others – to feel pain when those around you are suffering. For this very reason, the willingness to allow oneself to be disturbed in this manner is considered “a fundamental principle of the Torah”.
First posted on Facebook 26 December 2021, here.
