YOUR SUCCESS IS MY SUCCESS

I have learned a great deal from my work with recovering alcoholics. In our rehabilitation center, we would have weekly community meetings with everyone in the building in attendance: the clients, the therapists, the clerical staff, and the housekeeping personnel. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss whatever was occurring within the facility that might have an effect on anyone. This meeting was known as "Bus Stop," with the derivation of the name coming from the bus station, where many people may congregate in the same building, each one concerned only with getting to his own particular destination, and not concerned in the least where anyone else was going.

The theme of the meeting was: Are we indeed a bus station, with everyone here seeking only to better himself/herself? Or are we interdependent, with everyone's progress in recovery impacting in one way or another on everyone else?

The assumption was that these community meetings would foster a sense of interdependence, so that no one would isolate himself and consider himself separate from the group as a whole.

I was privileged to observe the development of a sense of mutual responsibility. Clients became interested in each other and were willing to help one another in whatever way possible. The attitude that prevailed was that "My recovery is incomplete if I stand apart from others." If a client wished to leave treatment prematurely, others would gather to discourage him from doing so. They frankly stated that their motivation was not purely altruistic, and that they felt that any person's failure to recover would have a negative effect on their personal recovery. There was a feeling in the group 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 are going to help me? I am the king of all animals. I am the mightiest of all in the jungle, and 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 needed to be rescued by the humble mouse.

This is what Moses 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 there are no other peoples in the world who can be referred to as adam."

Some have sought to interpret this Midrash as being discriminating against non-Jews. During the [early 20th century] Beiliss trial, when Jews all over the world were alarmed by the anti-Semitic blood libel against Mendel Beiliss, Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin explained the Midrash. Jews the world over are as one person. Just as if 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 everywhere, even thousands of miles away. No other people [scattered throughout the world] has this sensitivity for one another.

Regardless to what degree a person manifests his Jewishness, there is a core of Jewishness in everyone, a spark which bursts into flame when Jews anywhere are threatened.

It is important that this sense of mutual responsibility be cultivated. The Talmud states that [in the Purim story], when Ahashverus gave Haman his signet ring and authorized him to issue decrees at his whim, this threat was more effective in bringing Jews to spiritual awakening ("teshuvah") than the admonitions of 48 prophets.

We find this very much true today in Israel. When anyone in Israel is threatened by its enemies, all divisiveness evaporates, and the entire population coalesces into one body.

NEED FOR UNITY

Let us not 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 looking 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 as expressed by the prophet, "For who is like Your people, Israel, one nation in the land." (I Chronicles 17:21)