We will be rewarded by Rosh Hashanah
The pandemic has forced us all to make tough sacrifices but we have opportunity for a new beginning
Year after year my father wrote a column in The Commercial Appeal shortly before the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.
It’s a little more than two years since my father passed away, and I often consider, particularly as we approach Rosh Hashanah, what he would have thought about the times we are living in. and where we are headed.
We all experience some form of selfsacrifice in our lifetimes, often in our daily lives. For some of us this means eating less so others can eat more, or just enough. For others, it may be giving up a seat on the train so the elderly or handicapped may be able to sit.
In COVID-19 times, this means wearing a mask in public, social distancing, often living apart from our families and friends and commonly compromising our daily activities.
Altruism promotes allocation of a resource even when there is no monetary or other type of concrete reward.
On Rosh Hashanah we have read for thousands of years, in synagogues around the world, of God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son and heir Isaac.
Stories from the Talmud give guidance
Abraham is asked to give up his future without apparent or tangible reward. Isaac, in turn, is amenable to this plan, and ready to die for a command for remuneration than cannot be construed in financial or material terms.
But why did they do this? Why didn’t they ask, “What’s in it for me?” Rabbi Shimon Shkup in early 20th century Poland wrote that the purpose of humanity is to help other people, and this in fact is the primary meaning of God’s biblical command to “be holy.”
The Talmud notes in the tractate of Sanhedrin, that if one destroys a life it is regarded as though they destroyed the whole world. Conversely, if one preserves a life, it is as though thy saved an entire world.
Maimonides translates altruism into pragmatic life-and-death terms based on the following principle: “One who is able to save someone else, must.” Failing to do so may be construed as murder.
Are there limits? What if I feel as if I can’t breathe when I wear a mask, do I still need to wear one? What if my daughter is getting married, do I still need to worry about exposing my guests to COVID-19 at the wedding?
Radbaz, Rabbi David b. Zimra, in a 16th century responsa wrote, “In trying to save another life, if there is any threat to your life, saving that other life over your own is piety of idiocy, as your life takes precedence even over someone else’s definite danger.”
Yet, Radbaz, as well as modern ethicists, would certainly agree that inconvenience would not trump altruism particularly when saving another’s life.
Data from the COVID-19 pandemic has repeatedly demonstrated that wearing a mask in public, social distancing, and quarantine when indicated, all reduce the number of cases and in turn reduces the morbidity and mortality associated with contracting this virus and can help avoid overwhelming health care resources.
Sadly, society often does not equate avoiding possible exposure to someone on the street with throwing a life preserver to one drowning in a river.
What would my father say?
How does Abraham’s selfless giving and Issacs’s model of self-sacrifice translate into today’s reality?
I think my father would point out, Abraham does not in fact slay Isaac and Isaac indeed does not die in this episode.
Their story is much more about altruism, a willingness to give, a reminder of the importance of the value of each individual to give to each other.
Each of us was created in the image of God.
Therefore, each of us has an obligation to respect and help preserve each other.
During this pandemic, what society asks of us as individuals may be inconvenient, and may not be stylish, or it may even cause hardship and some suffering.
Ultimately we will be rewarded by a Rosh Hashanah, a new year, that will be the harbinger of a new beginning for humanity, one where giving surpasses taking.
Rabbi Dr. Shamai Grossman grew up in Memphis and is now Associate Professor of Medicine and Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Vice Chair for Health Care Quality, Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston.