Community Magazine July 2014

Striking a healthy balance between selfishness and selflessness in today's 'Me' Generation Dealing with THE NEW Generation 20 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE T here is no need to explain the Torah’s attitude toward selfishness. Our nation was founded by AvrahamAvinu, the paragon of generosity and kindness, because to a large extent, this iswhat beingaJewisall about. Butwhile thispoint is–hopefully– self-evident, it is worthwhile to observe just how severely the Torah treats selfishness, and how far contemporary society is from the Torah’s vision of selfless consideration of other people. Punishing Accidental Murder This month we read in the Torah the startling law of areh miklat , the “cities of refuge” that the Jewish nation was instructed to set up to protect inadvertent murderers. If a person accidentally killed somebody, he would relocate to one of the cities where he would find protection from the victim’s angry relatives. Surprisingly, though, the Torah does not simply allow the killer to seek refuge in one of these cities – it requires him to do so. In other words, when a person kills accidentally, he is forced into exile. And he must remain in the city until the kohen gadol dies. If the kohen gadol was a young 20-something, this fellow could potentially remain in exile for another 50 or 60 years – all because of an accident! A man is selling his piano. It doesn’t fit through the door, so he sets up a pulley system to lower it from the window. Something goes wrong, and the piano falls to the ground, causing a terrible tragedy. The man is heartbroken and devastated, overcome by excruciating feelings of guilt. He is a pious, peaceful person who never harmed anyone. But he is punished, and severely so. The Rambam explains that the man is punished for failing to exercise caution. If we are engaged in any potentially dangerous activity, it behooves us to take every reasonable precaution. As nice a fellow as this man is, he has no right to lower a piano from his window without implementing safety measures, such as closing off the block and warning people to stay away. A person has no right to get behind the wheel of a vehicle unless he is alert and committed to safe driving. Yes, accidents happen, but we are supposed to make sure they don’t happen. When public safety is at stake, “it was an accident” is not an excuse. And so the killer is exiled. RABBI ELI J. MANSOUR Selfishness is almost as old as mankind itself. The sages tell us that Kayin killed his brother because of selfishness, as he did not want to share the world with another person. As big as the world was, and although they were just two brothers, Kayin wanted it all, because he was interested only in himself, in having everything he wanted. meŸ Me me