Neighbors in Need
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 73a
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| How do we know that if a person sees another person drowning, mauled by beasts, or attacked by robbers, s/he is bound to save him? From the verse, “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor!” (Leviticus 19:16). [AJWS translation] |
מניין לרואה את חבירו שהוא טובע בנהר, או חיה גוררתו, או לסטין באין עליו, שהוא חייב להצילו - תלמוד לומר לא תעמד על דם רעך (ויקרא י"ט).
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. What are some ways to help people today that are targeted by violence?
2. What are some ways to help those who are kept poor by a trading and market system that benefits from their poverty?
3. What is the opposite of standing idly by? Does the directive here come with a measurable level of success?
Amos 5:10-12
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| They hate the arbiter in the gate, and detest him whose plea is just. Assuredly, because you impose a tax on the poor and exact from him a levy of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone but you shall not live in them; you have planted delightful vineyards, but shall not drink their wine. For I have noted how many are your crimes, and how countless your sins -- you enemies of the righteous, you takers of bribes, you who subvert in the gate the cause of the needy! [JPS translation] |
שָׂנְאוּ בַשַּׁעַר מוֹכִיחַ וְדֹבֵר תָּמִים יְתָעֵבוּ: לָכֵן יַעַן בּוֹשַׁסְכֶם עַל דָּל וּמַשְׂאַת בַּר תִּקְחוּ מִמֶּנּוּ בָּתֵּי גָזִית בְּנִיתֶם וְלֹא תֵשְׁבוּ בָם כַּרְמֵי חֶמֶד נְטַעְתֶּם וְלֹא תִשְׁתּוּ אֶת יֵינָם: כִּי יָדַעְתִּי רַבִּים פִּשְׁעֵיכֶם וַעֲצֻמִים חַטֹּאתֵיכֶם צֹרְרֵי צַדִּיק לֹקְחֵי כֹפֶר וְאֶבְיוֹנִים בַּשַּׁעַר הִטּוּ:
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. What are the people being accused of in this text?
2. How are the dynamics between rich and poor portrayed here?
3. In what ways do the punishments listed here match the crimes that brought them?
Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 61a
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Original |
| Our Rabbis taught: We sustain the non-Jewish poor with the Jewish poor, visit the non-Jewish sick with the Jewish sick, and bury the non-Jewish dead with the Jewish dead, for the sake of peace. [AJWS translation] |
ת"ר: מפרנסים עניי נכרים עם עניי ישראל, ומבקרין חולי נכרים עם חולי ישראל, וקוברין מתי נכרים עם מתי ישראל, מפני דרכי שלום.
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What does the "for the sake of peace" mean?
3. How do we reconcile this text with the common tenancy to care for our own first?
Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zara 17b
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Original |
| Rav Huna said: He who occupies himself only with studying Torah acts as if he has no God, as it says, "Israel has gone many days without a true God, etc." What is meant by "without a true God"?! That one who occupies himself only with Torah is like a person who is Godless. [Soncino translation] |
דאמר רב הונא: כל העוסק בתורה בלבד - דומה כמי שאין לו אלוה, שנאמר (דברי הימים ב' טו) וימים רבים לישראל ללא אלהי אמת וגו' , מאי ללא אלהי אמת? שכל העוסק בתורה בלבד - דומה כמי שאין לו אלוה.
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What should one do in addition to study?
3. What social justice themes emerge from this text?
"Why We Went," a statement from prison signed by rabbis and Jewish lay leaders, St. Augustine, Florida,1964.
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We came because we could not stand idly by our brother’s blood. We had done that too many times before. We have been vocal in our exhortation of others but the idleness of our hands too often revealed an inner silence...we came as Jews who remember the millions of faceless people who stood quietly, watching the smoke rise from Hitler’s crematoria. We came because we know that second only to silence, the greatest danger to man is loss of faith in man’s capacity to act.
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. In what way is losing faith in our capacity to act the greatest danger?
2. In what ways are we still standing idly by? In what ways have we done great acts of justice?
Rashi, Leviticus 25:35 (cf. Torat Kohanim, Sifre Behar, Chapter 5)
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Do not let him slip down until he falls completely, for then it will be difficult to raise him; rather, strengthen him as he begins to fall. To what is this comparable? To a burden upon an donkey. While it is still on the donkey, one person can hold it and set it in place. If it falls to the earth, even five people cannot set it back. [AJWS translation]
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והחזקת בו - אל תניחהו שירד ויפול ויהיה קשה להקימו, אלא חזקהו משעת מוטת היד. למה זה דומה, למשאוי שעל החמור, עודהו על החמור אחד תופס בו ומעמידו, נפל לארץ, חמשה אין מעמידין אותו:
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen? 2. What power dynamics are at play? 3. In today's world there are millions of people who are slipping and millions more who have already fallen completely. Knowing this, how can we still utilize the wisdom of this text? 4. How does the thinking of this text impact how we might think about foreign aid?
Rambam, Laws of the Murderer and Protecting Life 1:14
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| Whenever a person can save another person’s life but fails to do so, he transgresses a negative commandment, as Leviticus 19:16 states: “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” Similarly, [this commandment applies] when a person sees a colleague drowning at sea or being attacked by robbers or a wild animal, and he can save him himself or can hire others to save him and does not. Similarly, [it applies] when he hears [others] conspiring to harm a colleague or planning a snare for him, and he does not inform him and notify him [of the danger]. And similarly this is true if he knows of others scheming to harm a friend and can appease the conspirator and prevent him from carrying out the plot and does not, and all things in this vein, the one who does these things transgresses the commandment of "Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor." [AJWS translation] |
כל היכול להציל ולא הציל עובר על (ויקרא י"ט ,ט"ז) לא תעמוד על דם רעך, וכן הרואה את חבירו טובע בים או ליסטים באים עליו או חיה רעה באה עליו ויכול להצילו הוא בעצמו או שישכור אחרים להצילו ולא הציל, או ששמע גוים או מוסרים מחשבים עליו רעה או טומנין לו פח ולא גלה אוזן חבירו והודיעו, או שידע בגוי או באנס שהוא קובל על חבירו ויכול לפייסו בגלל חבירו ולהסיר מה שבלבו ולא פייסו, וכל כיוצא בדברים אלו, העושה אותם עובר על לא תעמוד על דם רעך.
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. According to this text, one can hire others to save someone. In our contemporary context, who can we hire to save the thousands of lives lost daily?
2. We know that it is common practice for corporations to undermine labor and health regulations. How can we help those being hurt? How can we stop these practices from happening?
Rashi, Deuteronomy 22:1
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Original |
| And ignore them - conquering his eyes as if he does not see it/him. You shall not see…and ignore - The plain meaning here is that you shall not notice only in order to ignore. [Ziegler translation] |
והתעלמת - כובש עין כאלו אינו רואהו: לא תראה, והתעלמת - לא תראה אותו שתתעלם ממנו, זהו פשוטו.
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. This text is commenting on the rule to not turn your eyes away when you see someone asking for help. When we see someone asking, we must either respond or ignore them. According to Rashi, what are we not allowed to do?
2. Who are the players in this text - seen and unseen?
3. What power dynamics are at play?
Susan Sontag, "Regarding the Pain of Others" (New York: Picador, 2003)
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So far as we feel sympathy, we feel we are not accomplices to what caused the suffering. Our sympathy proclaims our innocence as well as our impotence. To that extent, it can be (for all our good intentions) an impertinent — if not an inappropriate — response. To set aside the sympathy we extend to others beset by war and murderous politics for a consideration of how our privileges are located on the same map as their suffering, and may — in ways that we prefer not to imagine — be linked to their suffering, as the wealth of some may imply the destitution of others, is a task for which the painful, stirring images supply only the initial spark.
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. In what way is our affluence on the same map as the destitution of others?
2. We did not create this system, nor are we at fault for it. Nonetheless, it exists. How can we best respond to it?
Esther 4:14
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| On the contrary, if you keep silent in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, while you and your father's house will perish. And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis. [JPS translation] |
כִּי אִם הַחֲרֵשׁ תַּחֲרִישִׁי בָּעֵת הַזֹּאת רֶוַח וְהַצָּלָה יַעֲמוֹד לַיְּהוּדִים מִמָּקוֹם אַחֵר וְאַתְּ וּבֵית אָבִיךְ תֹּאבֵדוּ וּמִי יוֹדֵעַ אִם לְעֵת כָּזֹאת הִגַּעַתְּ לַמַּלְכוּת:
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What power dynamics are at play?
3. What social justice themes emerge from this text?
Created ByTemple B'nai Israel
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