“I go to bed worried about all the promises we’ve made. And I get up each morning thinking we haven’t made enough promises.” - Dr. Paul Farmer, 1959-2022, quoted in Dr. Michelle Williams "Paul Farmer taught us not to accept the status quo in public health", February 22, 2022, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/22/opinion/paul-farmer-taught-us-not-accept-status-quo-public-health/
A piece of mishnah had its moment in the limelight in the summer of 2021 when a volume of Pirkei Avot from 1492 was used at a White House swearing in ceremony:
"...that 529-year-old book made a starring appearance under the hand of Eric Lander, a man who helped map the human genome, when he was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Lander, 64, who is Jewish, used the book as the sacred text upon which he swore his oath to uphold the values of a nation that was not even a notion when the book was printed....
Lander zeroed in on chapter 2, verse 16 of “Pirkei Avot,” which speaks to the value of Tikkun Olam, or the endless task of repairing the world: “It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task, but neither are you free to absolve yourself from it.”
That espouses, Lander says, his family’s deepest values. “We are (all) part of a continuous chain of people who are devoted to repairing the world,” he said. “That’s what keeps the world, you know, livable and good. And we make it better in this way.”
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2021/06/the-white-house-scientist-and-the-ancient-jewish-book/
(טו) רַבִּי טַרְפוֹן אוֹמֵר, הַיּוֹם קָצָר וְהַמְּלָאכָה מְרֻבָּה, וְהַפּוֹעֲלִים עֲצֵלִים, וְהַשָּׂכָר הַרְבֵּה, וּבַעַל הַבַּיִת דּוֹחֵק:
(15) Rabbi Tarfon said: the day is short, and the work is plentiful, and the laborers are indolent, and the reward is great, and the master of the house is insistent.
(טז) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה. אִם לָמַדְתָּ תוֹרָה הַרְבֵּה, נוֹתְנִים לְךָ שָׂכָר הַרְבֵּה. וְנֶאֱמָן הוּא בַעַל מְלַאכְתְּךָ שֶׁיְּשַׁלֵּם לְךָ שְׂכַר פְּעֻלָּתֶךָ. וְדַע מַתַּן שְׂכָרָן שֶׁל צַדִּיקִים לֶעָתִיד לָבֹא:
(16) He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say: It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it; If you have studied much Torah, you shall be given much reward. Faithful is your employer to pay you the reward of your labor; And know that the grant of reward unto the righteous is in the age to come.
We are not obligated to complete the task...What does the second half of this famous mishna mean? 'Lehibatel mimeno' - we are not free to desist, neglect, ignore the task? Does it mean be a 'batlan' and be lazy (as in the prior mishnah, haPoalim aztelim - the works are lazy) or stop trying? What is the minimum effort required to not be neglecting a task? A remarkable passage from Parshat Vayera offers a way to understand this well known mishna.
Hashem decides to tell Avraham about Hashem's plans to destroy Sodom. A negotiation ensues ('will you save the city on account of 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10?), but ultimately does not change the outcome - Avraham wakes up in the morning to see the smoke rising from Sodom. How are we to understand this narrative, which takes up 17 verses? Three possible reasons emerge that teach us about what it means 'lehibatel mimeno':
1) Don't despair
2) Don't disengage
3) Don't underestimate your power
First meaning of 'lehibatel': don't despair. We might think there is no point trying if we may not affect the ultimate outcome, but you still must try. Avraham negotiates to save Sodom and ultimately learns he failed, but he still needed to try.
- The Mesilat Yesharim offers that we may feel that our prayers are insignificant ('who am I to pray for Jerusalem etc?') and yet we still do and we must
- Rabbi Shai Held in his book the Heart of Torah suggests that Hashem is teaching Avraham how to advocate for justice so Avraham in turn can teach his children 'la'asot tzedek umishpat'
- Avraham is learning and trying out different ways of approaching G-d, (chalilah lach! vs I am but dust and ashes); Rashi suggests that Vayigash may be language of battle, supplication etc.
So even if it doesn't affect the outcome, Avraham's engagement and speaking out sets the stage for future generations to do so.
Rabbi Shai Held, The Heart of Torah, Parashat Vayera
"God wants Abraham to train his descendants to do what is just and right, but Abraham cannot teach what he himself has not yet learned. Abraham needs to learn how to stand up for justice and how to plead for mercy, so God places him in a situation in which he can do just that. Subtly, the text communicates a powerful lesson, one that is learned all too slowly, if at all, by those of us blessed with children: We cannot teach our children values which we ourselves do not embody. If Abraham is to father a people who will stand up for what is good and just, he will first have to do so himself."
2) Don't disengage:
- Ibn Ezra notes that "betoch ha'ir" - in the city, and "hamakom" appear several times in the negotiation passage between Avraham and Hashem - alluding to the righteous publicly 'revering Hashem', not just privately
- Nehama Leibowitz comments that the righteous cannot disengage and be righteous in their 'dalet amot', as if to say 'it's their problem' and not try to better their city. If the righteous people had been involved and engaged in the city, perhaps it could have been changed or saved.
Nechama Leibowitz - Parashat Vayera - Sodom
"The second principle that emerges from the dialogue between Abraham and the Almighty is the responsibility of the righteous few towards the rest of society, however corrupt, and their capacity to save it from destruction by the sheer force of their own merit and moral impact. Should there exist in Sodom, the symbol of wickedness and corruption, fifty righteous men, should not their merit be capable of saving the whole city? Surely even one light illuminates far more than itself and one spark is sufficient to penetrate the thickest darkness! Surely the "place"; constitutes but one whole and if its heart is strong and healthy, should this not result in saving the rest of the body?
The prophet Jeremiah formulated these same sentiments in a starker and more extreme manner:
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, And see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, If ye can find a man, If there be any that executeth judgement, that seeketh the truth; And I will pardon it. (Jeremiah 5, 1)
But our sages inserted one important proviso limiting the power of the few or the individual to save the many through their merit, finding an allusion to their principle in the Divine answer to Abraham's first plea in our chapter:
And the Lord said:
If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city,
Then I will spare all the place for their sakes.(18, 26)
It is the repetition implied in the employing of both "in Sodom"; and "within the city"; that provides our commentators with the clue. Ibn Ezra briefly but significantly reveals the all important implications of this repetition:
the reason for the words "within the city"; implies that they fear the Lord in public, compare Jeremiah"run ye to and fro throught the streets of Jerusalem.";
In other words, the few can turn the scales and save the place, if the righteous individuals concerned are "within the city,"; playing a prominent part in public life and exerting their influence in its many fields of activity. But if they merely exist, living in retirement and never venturing firth but pursuing their pious conduct unseen and unknown, they will, perhaps, save themselves, but will certainly not possess the spiritual merit capable of protecting the city. The same city which forces the righteous few into retirement so that their scrupulous moral standards should not interfere with the injustice dominating public life, the same city is not entitled to claim salvation by virtue of the handful of righteous men leading a secluded life within it. Sodom could not boast of fifty, forty, thirty, or even ten righteous men, and if they existed, at any rate they were not "within the city."
3) Don't underestimate the power of our actions.
Once you overcome despair and disengagement to start doing 'something' - you never know when your actions might be the ones to 'tip the scales'. Avraham didn't know what the 'threshold' number was so he kept going, kept advocating, kept trying.
- The midrash describes the people of Sodom as doing many 'little' things wrong; my kindergartner explained is as each person stealing just one pretzel saying 'they won't miss it' until the child is left with an empty bag of pretzels.
- Rambam imagines our own fate and the fate of the world hanging in the balance and one small act could tip it in the right direction (Mishneh Torah below)
- Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz reminds us that one vote, one donation, one letter to congress could be the one to 'tip the scales' and whose effects will ripple out beyond
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz: Pirkei Avot Social Justice Commentary, p. 118 (2:21): "In the aggregate what could one person do? Why donate hard-earned wages? Why sign a petition? What start an advocacy group? Why show up to a rally? Why vote? I'm but one person; what could my role possibly be in an ocean of other interests? But the Rabbis teach that our act may be precisely the one that tips the scales....even the smallest action has the potential to send ripples across the great beyond to affect countleess others, as was others who have yet to be."
That brings us to the lesser-known ending of the mishnah which states that the 'schar - reward' is in the 'atid lavo - in the future to come' - we don't yet know what fruits our efforts will yield, but we cannot despair, cannot disengage and cannot underestimate the power of our actions.
As Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg says, "you are not obligated to do everything but you are obligated to do something." We never know when our actions, however small, will be the ones to tip the scales towards justice, chesed - compassion, and shalom - peace.
(טז) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה. אִם לָמַדְתָּ תוֹרָה הַרְבֵּה, נוֹתְנִים לְךָ שָׂכָר הַרְבֵּה. וְנֶאֱמָן הוּא בַעַל מְלַאכְתְּךָ שֶׁיְּשַׁלֵּם לְךָ שְׂכַר פְּעֻלָּתֶךָ. וְדַע מַתַּן שְׂכָרָן שֶׁל צַדִּיקִים לֶעָתִיד לָבֹא:
(16) He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say: It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it; If you have studied much Torah, you shall be given much reward. Faithful is your employer to pay you the reward of your labor; And know that the grant of reward unto the righteous is in the age to come.
@TheRaDR How do we not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed with a sense of responsibility with Tikkun Olam?
You’re not obligated to do everything, but you are obligated to do something. What can you do given yr talents, passions, capacities (how much time, money, etc you have)? Rabbi Tarfon said: you are not required to complete the work, but you can’t give up on it. Pirke Avot 2:16