Sharing the Burden of the Community
BY RABBI CHAIM DRUKMAN זצ”ל
Sharing communal pain
The last chapter of Mishnah Avot (6:6) presents a list of things required from a person who wishes to ‘acquire’ the Torah. One of them is “he bears a burden with his fellow.”
Maharal explains in his commentary on this Mishnah that bearing a burden with one’s fellow is not limited to sharing the burden of just one friend but also includes bearing a burden with the entire community. When a person bears the burden of the entire community, he demonstrates that he is not separate from the community, but part of it. For this reason, this person is worthy of the Torah, for the Torah was not given to individuals – but to the people of Israel as a whole.
The Torah comes to instill in us a total perspective, to grasp that everything is part of a great whole, that there is no individual disconnected from the whole. For this reason, bearing a burden with one’s fellow is essential for the acquisition of Torah.
A Midrash (Pesikta Zutreta, Shemot 2:11) brings Moshe Rabbeinu as an example of bearing the burden of one’s fellow in the collective sense. The Torah (Shemot 2:11) recounts how Moshe Rabbeinu, when he still lived in Pharaoh’s palace in Egypt, went out to his brothers to see their suffering. Moshe could have remained in Pharaoh’s palace, but he chose to go out and see how Israel was being tormented; he did not estrange himself from them.
In connection with this story, the Midrash mentions Hillel’s adage, “Do not set yourself apart from the community” (Avot 2:4), and adds: “One should not see the community suffering and say, ‘I will go home to eat and drink, as all is well with me.’ Rather, he should share the burden with his fellow.”
“And he was chained in fetters”
In Chapter 39 of the Book of Yirmiyahu, it is told that Nebuzaradan, the “chief executioner” of King Nebuchadnezzar, received an instruction from his king to “do no harm” (30:12) to Yirmiyahu during the destruction of the Kingdom of Yehudah and the exile of many of its people to Babylon. And indeed, the text states that Yirmiyahu was released “from the prison compound” (30:14) where he had been confined, and he went and dwelled among the people.
Yet at the beginning of the next chapter, we read that Yirmiyahu was “chained in fetters among those from Jerusalem and Yehudah who were being exiled to Babylon” (40:1), until Nebuzaradan came and freed him. Nebuzaradan even offered to bring him to Babylon and look after him there, but Yirmiyahu refused, preferring to remain with the few Judahites who remained in Eretz Yisrael when the rest were exiled.
And one must wonder: if Yirmiyahu was released earlier in the episode, why was he “chained in fetters” with the rest of the people?
A Midrash (Eicha Rabbah, Introduction §34) recounts that after his initial release, Yirmiyahu saw a gang of young men chained by the neck, and he voluntarily went and placed his head with them! When Nebuzaradan saw this, he removed him from them. Then Yirmiyahu saw a group of elders in shackles and placed his neck with them. Once again, Nebuzaradan came and removed him from them. Ultimately, Nebuzaradan presented Yirmiyahu with the option of remaining with the remnant in Yehudah or coming with him to Babylon, and Yirmiyahu chose to remain in Eretz Yisrael, in accordance with Hashem’s command.
Rabbi Yitzchak ben Shlomo of Toledo, in his commentary on Avot, sees Yirmiyahu’s participation in Israel’s imprisonment as an expression of the virtue of “bearing the burden with one’s friend” and sharing in his distress.
He adds that one who bears the yoke of the kingdom together with the community will ultimately witness the comfort of the community, and he will retain what he has learned. The source for his comments is the Gemara (Ta’anit 11a), which states that anyone who starves himself during years of famine, even if he personally lacks nothing, will be spared an unusual death – a reward for having tormented himself to share the community’s pain and identifying with the community in its distress.
The Gemara adds when Israel is in distress, and one of them sets himself apart, the two ministering angels assigned to accompany that person come, place their hands on his head, and say: “So-and-so, who set himself apart from the community, will not witness the comfort of the community!” The Gemara also states there that at a time when the community is in distress, a person should not say to himself: “I will go home to eat and drink, as all is well with me.” Rather, he should cause himself distress to suffer along with the community.
The Gemara brings an example of this from Moshe Rabbeinu. When Israel was battling Amalek, Moshe stood on top of a hill and raised his hands to strengthen the people. The Torah takes care to describe how Moshe sat down: “Moshe’s hands grew heavy, so they took a stone and put it beneath him, and he sat on it” (Shemot 17:2). Why did Moshe specifically sit on a stone? Did he not have a cushion or pillow to sit on? Rather, Moshe said: “Since Israel is in distress, I will suffer along with them!”
This excerpt is from Rabbi Chaim Drukman zt”l’s B’chayil U’veruach, adapted and translated into English as With Might and Spirit. To see an extract of the book and to purchse the full online version please go to mizrachi.org/mightandspirit.