Only You: The Power of Individuals in Community (Re'eh 5779)

"Smokey Bear" Turned 75 in August 2019

Earlier this month the U.S. Forest Service celebrated the 75th birthday of Smokey Bear - the iconic forest dweller who still encourages individual responsibility to prevent wildfires -- as many as 90% of which are sparked by human activity. 

When I was a kid, we took Smokey seriously whenever we were making fires or with people who smoked outdoors. Each of us thought, "It is on me!" 

In recent years, though, with the accelerating frequency and intensity of wildfires caused by climate change and urban planning factors, I wonder if Smokey's message still resonates. Can any one of us really prevent a wildfire?


Something in the opening verse of this week’s Torah portion spotlights this issue: "See [as in 'behold'], I've put before you [the choice of] blessing or curse." (Deut. 11:26.) "See" is voiced grammatically in the singular. While "before you" is voiced in the plural. 


Rabbi Shlomo Riskin (Chief Rabbi of Efrat, Israel) observes this as a novel move in Torah -- from singular to plural. This move from the individual to the collective expresses an essential covenant of Judaism -- mutual responsibility -- that each individual is a guarantor for the collective. (E.g., Talmud, Sanhedrin 27b) This means that our individual choices link us to each other, create a shared environment, and shared responsibility. 

Rambam (12th century, astronomer, physician, and Sephardic Torah scholar) calls the move in our verse from the singular to the collective the "pillar" of Torah. In his language, it affirms that the power of the collective "is in the hands" of the individual.

Rambam's image calls to mind a favorite folktale, which is found in different traditions including Native American, Chinese, Indian, and Jewish. In fact, Toni Morrison who died earlier this summer told a variant of this story in her 1993 Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Here's my adapted version:

A small village had the wisest person in the world. Whatever question was put to her, she answered correctly. Week after week she'd sit in the town square answering questions. Without fail she got every answer right. People came from all over to quiz her. Should I plant my crops next week? Should I marry Gittel? Should I be friends with Moishe? Is the Sun more important than the moon? She always gave the correct answer. 

But two mean-spirited boys in her village were always trying to belittle others to make themselves seem bigger. They had a plan to prove the wise woman wrong. They captured butterflies and brought them to the wise woman cupped in the palms of their hands. They planned to trick her by asking if the butterflies were dead or alive. If she answered "dead," they planned to open their hands letting the butterflies fly off proving her wrong. Or if she answered alive, they planned to quickly squeeze the butterflies to death then opening their hands to reveal dead butterflies. 

With the butterflies in their closed hands, the boys approached the wise woman. “Wise Woman, tell us, are the butterflies we hold dead or alive.” The wise woman looked carefully into their eyes.

Then she gave this answer, "whether the butterflies are alive or dead, the answer is in your hands."

So it is in our school community. Whether we are one that respects and includes others is in your hands. Whether we are one that teases or demeans others who are different instead of learning from and celebrating those differences is in your hands. Whether we show respect for and kindness toward each other is in each of our hands. As Smokey Bear says, “only you.” It seems to me, he really means "especially you." Each and every one of us.