Vayeira<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nSelf vs. Selfish<\/p>\n
Nationalism? Globalism?<\/p>\n
Get my house in order and take care of my own life and its needs? Open the door to others and share my blessings?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible to satisfy both. The quandary often lies in deciding which element we should emphasize at which point in the ubiquitous struggle of self vs other.<\/p>\n
On this point, the Talmud tells us that \u201cone who says \u2018what\u2019s mine is yours, and what\u2019s yours is mine\u2019 shows ignorance.\u201d In other words: It\u2019s healthy to recognize that we have boundaries and borders. What\u2019s mine isn\u2019t intrinsically yours. And what\u2019s yours isn\u2019t actually mine.<\/p>\n
A society declaring that everything belongs to everybody is creating a world of anarchy. Such a worldview, teaches the Talmud, demonstrates a fundamental ignorance of human nature and its needs.<\/p>\n
A sense of self, of our personal boundaries, is healthy. Recognizing someone else\u2019s boundaries is critical to a sense of respect. The Talmud is telling us that it\u2019s good to know where we each begin and end.<\/p>\n
But the Talmud goes further with a curious statement: \u201cWhat\u2019s mine is mine and what\u2019s yours is yours\u2026this is the attitude of Sodom\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sodom is the Scriptural epitome of a selfish and cruel society, of man\u2019s inhumanity to man. Why should a simple recognition of our respective borders be labeled with such a horrible moniker?<\/p>\n
The Talmud\u2019s point is that a secure sense of self, recognizing one\u2019s own independent and valuable place in the world, is extremely important. Independence is a good thing. We want it for our children as they grow out of their dependency stage.<\/p>\n
At the same time, independence is not the ideal end-game. If one grows into independence, but hasn\u2019t recognized the need to genuinely share one\u2019s life with others, that\u2019s called stunted development.<\/p>\n
We want independence to mature into interdependence. Once I\u2019m truly standing on my own two feet, I\u2019m in a position to go beyond my personal borders to share life with someone else. And that\u2019s where I\u2019ll find life\u2019s richness. In other words: The Talmud tells us that one\u2019s proclamation of independence needs to be followed by a comma, not a period. It\u2019s healthy to achieve an understanding that \u201cwhat\u2019s mine is mine and what\u2019s yours is yours.\u201d But you can\u2019t stop there; we know where that got the Sodomites.<\/p>\n
Find independence. Then keep growing and share yourself with others.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what life is all about.<\/p>\n
Shabbat Shalom!
\nRabbi Yanky and Rivky Klein<\/p>\n
This email is In Loving memory of my dear father
\nR’ Yerachmiel Binyamin Halevi ben R, Menachem Klein OBM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shabbat Candle Lighting Times for Moscow, Russia Friday, November 18h Light Candles at 15:59 Join us Tonight! Weekly Kabbalat Shabbat Services 20:30 Followed by Shabbat Dinner Shabbat, November 19th, Shabbat Ends 17:18 Torah Portion: Vayeira Self vs. Selfish Nationalism? Globalism? Get my house in order and take care of my own life and its needs? …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2951"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2954,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2951\/revisions\/2954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmoscow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}