Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: Social Justice

Responses

Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: SOCIAL JUSTICE 14 Responses Passion, Power, and Partnership Shmuly Yanklowitz We are commanded to save the life of a non-Jew and to save him from harm, that if he was drowning in a river or if a stone fell upon him then we must use all of our strength and be burdened with saving him and if he was sick, we engage to heal him. (Nahmanides [Ramban], 13th -century Spanish rabbi)1 IRECALL the restless nights of my first job! Between college and rabbinical school, I worked as a corporate consultant, advising employees on their benefits packages. People would call, struggling with the decision about which health insurance program would be best for them. Every choice had serious risks and the potential for immediate costs. Confined by what I perceived to be the demands of my job, I recall naively feeling restrained from sharing my empathy and spiritual concern with those seeking my help. While I knew that I was helping the workers who were coming to me, I was aware that much more needed to be done for other workers like them who were looking for guidance and support. I needed to step back to reflect upon my career path and my life direction, based upon my interests, skills, and capacity for influence. The questions with which I struggled are, in many ways, the same questions with which Benjamin struggles in the case study and are questions that, I think, challenge many of us: Where shall I best utilize my time and energy? Should I rise in the corporate ranks in order to increase my financial net worth and then donate more to those in need? Should I spend two years volunteering in developing villages? Should I become an educator? In the past, I may have been more inclined to look to family , authority figures, and mentors to answer these difficult questions for me. At this point in my life, though, I realized that I needed to decide for myself how best to make my positive mark on the world. 1. Notes on Sefer HaMitzvot, Mitzvah 17. 15 I began to reflect upon the demands that Judaism places upon the ways that we invest our time, energy, and resources. I asked myself in what ways I was responsible to other people. Acharayut (responsibility ) comes from the root acher (other). To take responsibility means to cultivate the “ability” to “respond” to another. This responsibility to the other is often born in a moment when no one else is present to assist. As the sage Hillel said, in a place where there is not someone (of moral courage taking responsibility), strive to be that person.2 We each must ask ourselves: What position am I in, and how does that position provide me with special points of access that make me uniquely capable of, and thus uniquely responsible for, giving? At times the answers may be influenced by proximity (who needs me in my town), relationships (who needs me among those I know and love), and the severity of a given situation (natural disasters, for instance, can compel us to act regardless of proximity and relationships). In my search, I found Nahmanides’ argument, quoted above, to be compelling and persuasive: One must give all of one’s strength according to one’s unique position in the world. It is my contention that to actualize our potential and to fulfill our Jewish duties, we should take three critical steps: identify our core passions, build upon our power base, and cultivate partnerships for success. Passion The 18th -century Scottish philosopher David Hume famously argued that “it is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.”3 On some core psychological level, we might prefer to take care of the most trivial aspects of our self-interest over being proactive in addressing human suffering. A new era of activism provides us hope that this can change, but many still respond to the most pressing global issues of our age with apathy; there is a shortage of passionate, visionary justice-seekers to lead us. We need carefully deliberated giving, but even more, we need radically inspired activism and community service. We need enflamed souls who will pour their love, tears, sweat, and resources into making systemic and immediate change possible. 2. Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 2:6. 3. David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, 2:128 (London...