Vayigash: What Motivates Mutual Responsibility?

December 26, 2024

What does a loan guarantor have to do with loving our fellow Jews? And what really lies behind the expression "All Jews are responsible for one another?"

Sicha, 12 Tammuz 5731

A. “For Your Servant Guaranteed The Boy”
In this week’s Torah portion, we read about Judah taking responsibility and guaranteeing Benjamin’s safe return home (Source 1). This episode is the foundation for the Jewish monetary laws of guaranteeing loans (Source 2). Beyond monetary guarantees, there is also a moral responsibility among Jews, where each individual is accountable for the spiritual level of the entire community—“All Jews are guarantors for one another.” (Source 3). Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai likens this to a ship where one passenger drills a hole under their seat, endangering all passengers (Source 4). The Ben Ish Chai explains that this collective responsibility is why we confess on Yom Kippur, even for transgressions we did not personally commit. All Jews are one unified body, and we assume responsibility for one another’s transgressions (Source 5). This principle also applies to the laws of mitzvah blessings: a person who has already recited a blessing may repeat it for another Jew because they are responsible for each other. (Source 6)

B. Why Should I Guarantee Someone Else?
The Maggid of Mezritch interprets the word “arevim” or responsible, in the sense of sweetness, intertwinement, and mutual responsibility: a Jew should feel the sweetness of another Jew, fostering love and connection, which naturally leads to taking responsibility for them.
Sweetness relates to the power of pleasure, the strongest of the soul’s faculties.
Examples illustrating the power of pleasure:
1. A person can derive pleasure even from something that causes distress. For instance, fasting on Shabbat because of a dream is permitted because, in this case, the fast brings genuine pleasure. (Source 7)
2. Intellectually, a person is more successful in learning when studying topics or in environments that bring them joy and pleasure. (Sources 8–10)
3. Physically, pleasure can induce tangible changes in the body, as in the case of Vespasian, whose bones expanded from joy upon hearing of his promotion. (Source 11)
The love a Jew has for their fellow Jew should not only stem from intellectual reasoning. Instead, one Jew should delight in the existence of another. When a Jew finds themselves engaged with different Jews, they should derive joy from it. Thus, they will gladly accede to a request to serve as a financial guarantor.
This is the progression in the Maggid’s teaching: When Jews find one another “sweet” and delightful, it fosters “intertwinement” between them based on pleasure. This leads to them serving as a “guarantor” for one another with joy.

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