Moral Responsibility towards Actions that Protect Others

 

Today’s parasha, Ki Teitze, has one sentence that I would like to focus upon:

 

“When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you should not bring any blood upon your house, if any man falls from there.” (Deuteronomy 22:8)

 

כִּ֤י תִבְנֶה֙ בַּ֣יִת חָדָ֔שׁ וְעָשִׂ֥יתָ מַעֲקֶ֖ה לְגַגֶּ֑ךָ וְלֹֽא־תָשִׂ֤ים דָּמִים֙ בְּבֵיתֶ֔ךָ כִּֽי־יִפֹּ֥ל הַנֹּפֵ֖ל מִמֶּֽנּוּ׃ (ס)

 

When a person builds a house, they must put a parapet around the roof to prevent people from falling off. Later Rabbinic law goes into detail about how tall and how strong the parapet must be. In Biblical times food was dried and other chores were done on the roof of a home. The homeowner was responsible for everybody’s safety.

“ And like anything in Torah the rabbis of the Talmud discussed how far-reaching this concept is. They determined that it is prohibited to even leave a potentially dangerous object in one’s house. The consequence? Excommunication – removal from the community.

Like many punishments outlined in Deuteronomy, this seems pretty extreme. Being kicked out of the community for not putting a parapet on your roof? And the extension of that into not having anything potentially dangerous in your house that could injure another person and bring guilt on to you? The severity of these punishments indicates how important compliance with these laws was to the Israelite people. ” (Adrienne Rubin)

 

Of course, in this day and age, we have building codes which are designed to keep individuals safe who are inhabiting or visiting various buildings.  For example, in places where earthquakes are anticipated, buildings are designed to withstand seismic activity.  It is all a matter of society feeling responsible for everyone’s safety.

There is another section in Torah in the book of Exodus where a similar law about responsibility for another’s safety is stated.   It says, “If a person digs a hole and someone’s animal falls in, or worse, if a person falls in, the person who created the hole is responsible for damages.”

The Torahitic legislation does not allow room for individuals to say that they have a right to build a house with no parapet or they have a right to dig a hole. The Torah perspective is that one’s rights end when they threaten the safety of one’s neighbors.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what has happened to our sense of responsibility towards one another….our moral responsibility to act for the collective good.  Perhaps you remember the story of Noach in the beginning of the Torah.  When Noach hears that there is going to be a flood and that he is to build an ark and gather the animals before the rains come, we see that he says nothing.  He obeys the commands but does not try to have an impact on his contemporaries.  Being silent while others suffer is not a Jewish answer to how we are to interact with the world.  We are not to “stand idly by the blood of our fellow human beings.”  Morality involves our interactions with others.  Having laws that say we cannot endanger our neighbors is part of our moral obligation because we do indeed live in a social, communal setting. 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z’l, wrote in his book, To Heal a Fractured World, these words:  “The word ‘responsibility’ comes from the word ‘response’.  It implies the existence of another who has legitimate claims on my conduct, for or to whom I am accountable. The Hebrew equivalent, achrayut, derives from the word acher, meaning ‘an other’.”

Somehow the idea of being responsible for one another during this pandemic has turned into a political discussion.  It is not. We are all responsible for protecting the health and well-being of others in our midst.  From my perspective, the reality is that the covid19virus is here and mutating rapidly.  Our responsibility as individuals is to look at our behaviors and incorporate into our daily practice those behaviors that will not endanger others.  Our existence in the world is not only about our own personal comfort or sense of being able to do whatever we want, whenever we want to do it.  Certainly, this is a unique period of time in which we are living where we can show one another our ability to care for one another even in the face of extreme circumstances.  It is a time for moral responsibility.

 

Shabbat Shalom.