SOME ARE GUILTY, BUT ALL ARE RESPONSIBLE

Parashat Be'ha'a'lot'kha

Torah: Numbers 8:1-12:16

Haftarah: Zechariah 2:14 - 4:7

Sivan 18, 5785 - June 13-14, 2025

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This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for the hostages.

This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for the wounded and injured.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; May those who love you know tranquility.

Psalms 122:6

שַׁאֲלוּ, שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם; יִשְׁלָיוּ, אֹהֲבָיִךְ

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Lunch and Learn meets Mondays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. We're continuing to read and discuss the Midrashic collection Ein Ya'akov. Recently, we have also been learning some Gemara that was omitted from Ein Ya'akov. 
On June 16, we'll be at BT Yevamot 46b - 

 '... אָמַר רַבָּה: עוֹבָדָא הֲוָה בֵּי רַבִּי חִיָּיא בַּר רַבִּי' - "Rabba said: There was an incident in the house of Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Rabbi..."

Ein Ya'akov (Glick edition) is available for on-line reading or as a downloadable PDF at:

https://hebrewbooks.org/9630 
A pointed Hebrew text version with different pagination is available at Sefaria: 
https://www.sefaria.org/Ein_Yaakov?tab=contents  
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SOME ARE GUILTY, BUT ALL ARE RESPONSIBLE

The following is an extensive and lightly edited extract from a sermon I delivered on the second day of Rosh Hashanah 5784 (September 2023). I think it is every bit relevant to the events unfolding around us in Los Angeles and throughout the United States this very week.

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    I had occasion recently to read a speech by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel from 1963. The title is “Religion and Race”, delivered at a conference of the same name in Chicago. It was there that he met Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for the first time. The speech contains this famous saying of Heschel: “Some are guilty, but all are responsible.” I read that aphorism, which I have heard innumerable times over the years, in its original context for the first time.

    Heschel’s statement conjured up for me, in a new light, something else. He reminded me of teachings from Tractate Shabbat 54(b)-55(a), which I will tell in story form, including my commentary.

    A group of rabbis were sitting and discussing Torah, teaching each other and learning from each other, as rabbis do, and they said: Anyone who had the capability to effectively protest the misconduct of the members of his household and did not protest, he himself is apprehended for the misconduct of the members of his household and punished. If he is in a position to protest the conduct of the people of his town, and he fails to do so, he is apprehended for the misconduct of the people of his town. If he is in a position to protest the misconduct of the whole world, and he fails to do so, he is apprehended for the misconduct of the whole world.

    Rav Pappa said: And the members of the household of the Resh Galuta, the Exilarch who was the leader of the Jews in Babylonia, were apprehended and punished for the misconduct of the whole world. Because their authority extends across the entire Jewish world, it is in their hands to ensure that nobody commit a transgression. Rabbi Ḥanina then said: What is the meaning of this verse: “The Lord will enter into judgment with the Elders of His people and its princes, saying: It is you who have eaten up the vineyard; the robbery of the poor is in your houses” (Isaiah 3:14)?

    The Gemara continues: The question arises: If the princes sinned by committing robbery, what did the Elders, i.e., the Sages of that generation, do that was considered a sin? Rather, say: God will enter into judgment with the Elders because they did not protest the sinful conduct of the princes…..”

    Think about this for a moment. According to these rabbis, anyone who fails to protest sin, evildoing, immoral conduct, the mistreatment of others, etc., is to be punished for that misconduct AS IF IT WERE THEIR OWN – because they did not protest. That sounds a lot like the Yom Kippur liturgy, doesn’t it, where we communally confess to sins we didn’t individually commit. And it sounds a lot like Heschel.

     The Gemara continues: “….With regard to the issue of reprimand, it was related that Rabbi Zeira said to Rabbi Simon: ‘Let my Master reprimand the members of the house of the Exilarch,’ as Rabbi Simon had some influence over them. Rabbi Simon said to him: ‘They will not accept reprimand from me.’ Rabbi Zeira said to him: ‘Let my master reprimand them even if they do not accept it….’”

    Rabbi Zeira challenges his teacher, his rabbi, with a big “So what? You need to confront them even if they won’t listen to you!” The Gemara then goes a step further, in defense of Rabbi Zeira’s position.

    After God’s angel separates the non-righteous Resh Galuta family from the righteous rabbis of the city by special markings, for the purpose of rendering justice, this next thing happened: “…The attribute of Justice (yes, Justice and Mercy and Truth and Love have voices in rabbinic literature) – the attribute of Justice said before HaKadosh Barukh Hu, the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, how are these different from those? God said to that attribute: These rabbis are full-fledged righteous people, they’re tzaddikim, and those members of the Resh Galuta’s house are full-fledged wicked people, they’re rasha’im. Justice replies: Ribono shel olam, Master of the Universe, it was in the hands of the righteous to protest the conduct of the wicked, and they did not protest. God said to Justice: ‘It is revealed and known before Me that even had they protested the conduct of the wicked, the wicked would not have accepted the reprimand from them. They would have continued in their wicked ways.’ Justice replies: ‘Ribono shel olam, though it was revealed before You that their reprimand would have been ineffective, was it revealed to them? (I.e., just because YOU knew that their protests would have been ignored, did THEY know?) God then retracted the promise to protect the righteous and decided that those who failed to protest would also be punished.”

     According to our rabbis, God changes God’s mind, and punishes those whose crime is not speaking out against injustice. This is what Heschel’s teaching reminded me of – it’s a kind of equivalence – if few are guilty but all are responsible, it’s because those who failed to protest against injustice are thereby responsible for the perpetuation of injustice.

    Are we really responsible for injustice even if we are not guilty? I would add: Are we foolish enough to deny the existence of injustice in America, or in Israel, or in any other place? Do we really believe that there is no pattern of brutality and deprivation of rights of people of color in this country? Or of “the strangers among us”? Just because we ourselves might not be racists, does that mean that there is no systemic racism in this country? Do we refrain from protesting because we think it will do no good? Like the good Rabbi Simon?

    A protest against injustice is not only for benefit of the current victims, but for the benefit, perhaps I should say the protection of the protesters as well. At the end of the story about the rabbis who failed to protest injustice, the Gemara offers a proof text as follows: Rav Yehuda was sitting before Shmuel when a woman came and cried before Shmuel about an injustice that had been committed against her, and Shmuel paid no attention to her. Rav Yehuda said to Shmuel: Doesn’t the Master hold in accordance with the verse: “Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard” (Proverbs 21:13)?   

 

    Rav Yehuda asks his teacher: Don’t you believe what you preach?

    We have a week or so until Yom Kippur to think about this and to figure out what we will do in the year ahead to protest the injustices of our society – to resist – even if we think we will be ignored – even if we think we might suffer as a result.

    If we are serious about connecting to the High Holy Day liturgy and theology, then we must understand that our failure to speak out can bring on, in some way or shape or form, a punishment.

    Yesterday, our synagogue president, Dr. Lee, reminded us of Martin Niemoller’s “First they came for the Socialists…etc.…. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” Do we see a pattern here? If we do not speak out, there will be none to speak out for us when our time comes. If we ignore the cries of others, there will be no one who cares to hear our cries of pain and anguish.

    As some of you may know, I’m a big Star Trek fan. One of the primary nemeses in the series and movies is the Borg, who seek to destroy, through their warped idea of assimilation into their machine species, every other species and culture. Their catchphrase is: “Resistance is futile.” My hero, Captain Picard, despite the destruction of many ships in the fleet, despite the likelihood of defeat, fights back and responds: “Resistance is not futile!”

    He’s right. Resistance is not futile. Resistance is mandatory.

Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Richard A. Flom, Rabbi Emeritus

Temple B'nai Hayim

שתיקה כהודאה דמיא

Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.

BT Yevamot 88(a)

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