Not “Group Think,” rather thinking of the group

Chapter 1, Mishnah 14

הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי. וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי. וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי:

He used to say: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? and if not now, when?

L:  We see these phrases on the walls of Jewish institutions all over the world.

H: That’s right.

L: How about we begin our discussion with Mr. Bunim’s opening for this Mishnah.

“The aphorisms of Hillel are often cast in a paradoxical form. To what extent is a man bound to his ego? To what extent should a person be concerned with his own welfare, with his “self”? From on e aspect the question seems absurd. I am myself. I alone can experience myself, truly know myself. Hence, if I am not for myself, who will be for me? The most loving wife cannot share my pain, experience my anxieties, or suffer my death. Where a man’s relationship to his God is involved, a man must do for himself. My father’s learning cannot replace my obligation to learn. II must do my own praying and give my own charity. If I am not for myself, who will – indeed, who could be for me?

Bunim says a couple of pages further down…

“This is how Hillel’s words are to be understood: If every person would say,” I am here,” then indeed “everyone would be present.” If each person individually will perfect himself, the aggregate will take care of itself.

I think he’s saying that if everyone would behave this way, would think like this, this would be a better world.  Things would get done; you are held accountable, etc.

Then he continues…

“There is yet another point that may be intended in this dictum: Hillel may be speaking of the need to correct oneself and be self-critical. There are some things that even your best friend will not tell you. In fact, because he is a friend he may not correct you for fear of losing your friendship. Hence, “If I am not for myself, if I do not take myself in hand and improve my ways, who will be for me?

Again, this seems so logical.  But really how difficult is it to achieve this state of self-accountability?

H: Its probably not easy at all.

This is actually very interesting. Rabbi Hellman was here yesterday and discussed with me a piece of Gemorah [that relates to this topic].

You know Yaakov’s sons had to go down to Egypt to buy food.  The first one of the sons to approach Yaakov was Reuven.  Reuven said to his father that I, Reuven, will be held accountable. I will be responsible for the Jewish people. I will be responsible for Binyamin.  Yaakov responds to him [according to the passage in the Gemorah], that is not good enough. Some time goes by and the famine worsened.  So, this time the brothers turn to Yehudah who speaks to their father, Yaakov.  He tells his father that “We – not “I” – will be responsible.”

Yaakov said, “Now, I support your journey.”

So, in other words, Yaakov said “no” to Reuven because Reuven said “I” and to Yehudah  he said “yes,” because he said “we.”

L: What did you learn from this analysis that relates to our discussion in this Mishnah?

H: When Yehudah said it’s we, all of us, the entire Jewish people, he is declaring that this is a real responsibility. That it’s not just a solution for one person; it’s a solution for everyone.

L: You are saying that if we are all accountable, as Bunim said above, then it is a more uniting type of statement.  Maybe this is what he meant when he said that if we all take on this responsibility, the aggregate will take care of itself.

So, what started out as a somewhat self-serving type of Mishnah is far more global. Bunim might read the Mishnah differently. He might say that instead of saying, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me,” you instead could read this “If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us?”

H: Or, you read it as “If we are not for ourselves, who else will stand up for us?”

L: Okay, this interpretation sparked a thought in my mind. We are in this very interesting Jewish world today. Where if you were to get together a group of Jews in the same room. One was right-wing Orthodox, Modern Orthodox left-of-center Orthodox…forget Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist. Could we get all these Jews to say together, “If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us”? Could we get them all to agree – on almost any topic?

Let’s just take the topic of Israel. We can’t even get Israelis of different stripes who live in the same country to agree on many critical issues. They won’t say in unison, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me”.  Kal V’chomer [a Talmudic principle of logic that says “If one thing that is strict has a particular leniency, then another case with a leniency could also be lenient in a similar way”] a bunch of American Jews with different religious and political leanings will also have a difficult time agreeing with one another.

So, what hope is there that our “aggregate” in this country or in Israel, can agree on anything?

H: Who knows, maybe there is no hope with respect to all of us agreeing on a particular issue.  More important, how do you get this group [of Jews] to unite?

L: Now, let’s refocus on our grandchildren. How do you get them to understand this dictum?

H: You have to say to them that we have there are going to be situations where you would say “If I am not for myself…” but that circumstances are such that it’s not always about yourself.  There are many times when you have to be part of a group.

L: What I am understanding from you – or how you are phrasing it – the If-I-am-not-for-myself moments are few and far between? That we need to consider the larger group, the “we,” much of the time.

H: Yes, I believe that is so.