Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy (Lev 19:1-2).

Note the wording of the verse. Holiness is never achieved through separating oneself from the community. A community is made up of many types of individuals, the good, the bad, and even the ugly, as Clint Eastwood might say. Good people cannot afford to lock themselves up in an ivory tower of virtue, while the rest of the world deteriorates. Quite the contrary, the biblical ethos demands involvement and personal participation in making the secular city into a sacred city, where each member becomes the shepherd of his neighbor.

There’s a story about the Dubna Maggid, who once visited the famous Vina Gaon. The Gaon asked the Maggid if he would give him a little bit of mussar (ethical criticism)  The Maggid froze, what could he say to one like the Gaon?

The words came to him. He spoke, “When  Abraham challenged God to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, he asked God  if  He would spare the community if there were fifty people in the midst of the city. God was prepared to relent . . . ” After haggling with God, the Maggid asked, “Why does the Torah specify in the midst of the city” and not in the city?”

The answer he gave is most instructive. The Maggid said, “It isn’t good enough for there to be righteous people in a city, who stand apart from its communal affairs and problems. To truly be righteous, one must be involved in improving and shaping the community ‑‑bettering it. Can you honestly say that you have contributed toward bettering your community? You who live in a castle of books; you are someone who is completely detached from the real world and its problems.” The Gaon wept.

Dealing with other people is tough work. It’s a lot easier to pray 24/7 than it is to live a holy life when it comes to treating people properly and ethically. The Gaon’s harsh treatment of the Hasidic community often created more heat than light. Rather than meeting the Hasidim in the spirit of a friendly dialogue, the Gaon surrogated that task to others, while studying Torah almost 24/7. (By the way, the Gaon did have lots of children, almost twenty–according to direct descendants I personally know.)

How we treat the Other is a great moral challenge for every generation. It is easy to treat people who think or act like you do, but the real test is how do we treat people who think differently from us?

Sartre wrote a short play called, “No Exit,” where he depicts three people who spend an eternity with people they cannot stand or tolerate. This afterlife has no other form of torture, just the knowledge that one is living with people one cannot stand. He concludes by saying what has become an often quoted statement, “Hell is having to live with other people.”

Yet, it is precisely in this kind of world, we must learn to act holy and decently towards others who may not reciprocate in kind. Yet, morality as Levinas writes is not always symmetrical. This doesn’t necessarily mean we have to be a door mat to those who abuse us, but we are commanded to act fairly and justly towards others.