Our community is at a pivotal stage in our development. For six years many people have labored for the communal good. In Jewish tradition, the seventh year, at least for the ancient Israelite agricultural system was considered a sabbatical year, a year of rest. One might think that this meant a year of doing nothing. That would be wrong.
Instead, a sabbatical year was a year of great activity; old granaries were repaired and new ones were built. Failing enterprises and initiatives were put to rest and new and promising ones were finally launched; A year in which strategic plans that had been in the preparation stages were implemented.
Sabbatical was like the Shabbat; a time to focus on and work towards greater holiness; A year of sacred action and also a year to focus on the sacred relationships between community members and to expand our circle to embrace new souls.
In some ways, the coming year is our sabbatical year. I turn to a passage from Talmud, masechet Shevuot that says… (Mas. Shevu’oth 39a): “Kol Yisrael areivim zeh b’zeh.” – All Israel are responsible for one another. It is in a discussion of who is guilty and who blameless, who has responsibility for whom. And the conclusion of the rabbis is that we all are responsible for each other.
In a midrash, “A man in a boat began to bore a hole under his seat. His fellow passengers protested. ‘What concern is it of yours?’ he responded, ‘I am making a hole under my seat, not yours.’ They replied, ‘That is so, but when the water enters and the boat sinks, we too will drown.’” (Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, Leviticus Rabbah 4:6)
The whole communal enterprise of our synagogue is like a great ship. We traverse the great expanse, finding our way together. There are storms and there are beautiful ocean sunsets. We are men and women of many places who desire to build for ourselves a sacred community in which we can perform mitzvot – form special bonds with others and with God. We can fashion a place of refuge for one another against life’s storms and we can move towards mutual goals of faith, family, and fellowship. Every individual matters and no individual is intrinsically more valuable than any other.
One could just think of the boat as a mode of transportation, a “means to an end;” a way to bar-mitzvah a child, a way to gain the approval of parents, etc.; but one would be missing the much larger and more profound message.
We are all in the same boat…..NO, we ARE the boat. Kol areivim ze b’zeh. We are each responsible for one another. According to Rabbi Bunim of P’shiskha, everyone should have two pockets, each containing a slip of paper. On one should be written: ‘I am but dust and ashes’, and on the other: ‘The world was created for me’. From time to time we must reach into one pocket, or the other. The two sayings give us a balanced perspective on our role in the community.
What does the metaphor of the boat teach us about the nature of living as part of a community?
The key to this text is to understand the word areiv. In legal terms, it means a guarantor: one who guarantees an obligation and has a legal duty to fulfill it. Simply by virtue of being part of the this community, I am responsible for you and you are responsible for me. I promise to take care of you and you promise to take care of me.
Another meaning of areiv is being mixed up or bound together with something. That is, members of a Jewish community (whether Jewish or married to or related to someone Jewish) are bound together not just legally but emotionally, historically, and culturally. We are all part of the same unfolding community story.
Living as part of the community can necessitate giving up individual freedom. Our independence extends only to the extent that it does not compromise the welfare of the group.
In Parashat Nitzavim of the Torah it says: Atem nitzavim hayom. “You are standing here today, each one of you, from the elders of the community to the drawers of water…” It is saying that everyone has an equal right to Torah and to a community. We each have an equal right to and perhaps even more importantly we each have a responsibility to the Torah and to this community.
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