by Dr. Abraham Twerski
I have learned a great deal from my work with recovering alcoholics. In our rehabilitation center, we have weekly community meetings with everyone in the building in attendance: the clients, the therapists, the clerical staff, and the housekeeping personnel.
This meeting is known as "Bus Stop," as in bus station, where many people congregate in the same building, each concerned only with getting to his own particular destination, and not concerned in the least where anyone else was going.
The theme of our meeting is: Are we indeed a bus station, with each person here seeking only to better himself/herself? Or are we interdependent, with everyone's recovery progress impacting somehow on everyone else?
I observed the development of a sense of mutual responsibility. Clients became more interested in each other and willing to help one another. The prevailing attitude was that "My recovery is incomplete if I stand apart from others."
If a client wished to leave treatment prematurely, others would try to discourage him. They frankly stated that their motivation was not altruistic, and that they felt that any person's failure to recover would have a negative effect on their personal recovery. They felt that they would either rise together or fall together.
LION & MOUSE
There is a fable about a lion who caught a mouse. The mouse pleaded for its life, saying "If you release me, I will one day help you."
The lion roared with laughter. "You will help me? I am the king of all animals, the mightiest in the jungle! I certainly do not need the help of a lowly mouse."
Nevertheless, the lion let him go. Some time later, the lion found himself trapped in a hunter's net and was unable to break loose. The mouse appeared, and said, "I will gnaw through the ropes and set you free."
The mighty lion then realized that even he could not be totally self-sufficient, and was rescued by the humble mouse.
This is what Moses (in the end of Deuteronomy) intended with the covenant of "areivut," mutual responsibility. Israel was not to be fragmented. One cannot drill a hole under one's own seat in a boat and claim that it is no one else's business.
THREAT FELT BY ALL
There is a Midrash that is subject to misinterpretation. The Midrash states, "You, Israel, are referred to as adam (a person), and no other people can be referred to as adam."
Some interpret this Midrash as condescending to non-Jews. During the [early 20th century] Beiliss trial, when Jews around the world were alarmed by the anti-Semitic blood libel against Mendel Beiliss, Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin explained this Midrash as follows.
Jews the world over are as one person. When a person hurts his toe, the entire body feels the pain; so if one Jew anywhere in the world is harmed, the pain is felt by Jews thousands of miles away. No other people [scattered throughout the world] have such a sensitivity for one another.
Regardless to what degree a person manifests his Jewishness, there is a Jewish core in everyone, a hidden spark that bursts into flame when Jews anywhere are threatened.
This sense of mutual responsibility must be cultivated. The Talmud states that [in the Purim story], when Ahashverus gave Haman his signet ring and authorized him to issue his evil decree, this threat was more effective in bringing Jews to spiritual awakening ("teshuvah") than the admonitions of 48 prophets.
We find this today in Israel. When anyone in Israel is threatened by the enemy, divisiveness evaporates, and the entire population coalesces into one body.
But why wait for threats to bring us to our senses? Let us recognize that we are not only one nation, but essentially one body. It is of course much easier to insulate oneself, being responsible only for one's own actions and look out only for one's own needs. To accept responsibility for others is indeed stressful, and requires self sacrifice. However, failure to do so results in fragmentation, which undermines the mission of Israel "For who is like Your people, Israel, one nation in the land." (I Chronicles 17:21)
When describing the millions of Jews congregating at the foot of Mount Sinai, the Torah uses a singular verb: "And he encamped (singular) opposite the mountain" (Exodus 19:2). Jewish unity, with one heart, like one man, was a prerequisite for Sinai, and for the Shavuot holiday.
Dr. A Twerski is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and founder and Medical Director of Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Pittsburgh. Excerpted with permission from "DEARER THAN LIFE" - a guide to making your life more meaningful. Published by Shaar Press, and distributed by Mesorah Publications, Brooklyn, NY http://www.artscroll.com
 |