My Country is on Fire

Although smoke from forest fires on the mainland clouds the air over the strait, it barely reaches this island, and for that we are grateful.

Many others on both sides of the border are not so lucky. The fires are so threatening in some places that 26,000 people in Canada are currently evacuated from their homes.

The smoke has blown down to the US and worsened air quality over a broad swath of the north of the country. And at the same time, France and Spain are experiencing major fires.

This is an emergency and how someone responds to an emergency is very indicative of their character.

If your neighbour’s house was on fire, you would have two choices: grab a bucket or call your lawyer. Which choice you make says a lot about who you are.

Of course, what I am not saying directly is that the response of the president of our neighbour to the south was very indicative of the man. “Filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air,” he complained. “This is a big cost” for the U.S. he said and “Canada should pay for the damage.”

I’m not saying he is wrong. I am only reflecting on the kind of man he is and, especially, on what we can learn by comparing his response to what Jewish tradition teaches.

The best starting place for insight into this issue is Pirkei Avot, that book of the Mishnah compiled around 200 CE. I mentioned in an earlier post that the correct translation of that title is “Chapters of First Principles,” and here we have a question that is clearly about a first principle: self-interest vs. selflessness.

The question itself shows up in Pirkei Avot (1:14) when Hillel asks, “If I am not for myself, who will be? But if I am only for myself, what am I?”

Such a good phrasing of the issue, showing that there is wisdom and merit in both directions. That seems consistent with the Mussar principles of balance in all things.

But further on in Pirkei Avot we come to a different answer, one that was much more actively embraced by the teachers of the Mussar movement.

Mishnah 6:6 introduces itself as the 48 ways to acquire Torah. (Interestingly, this happens to be the 48^thinstalment of this blog!!) I wrote a whole book on this one Mishnah (With Heart in Mind) and in the Introduction to that book, I said:

Had the rabbis wanted us to make learning Torah the goal they would have said just that. When they direct us to acquire Torah, they are informing us that there is a stage beyond learning where the truths we have learned get worked into the very core of our being, into our hearts, so that truth will be the guiding light of our thoughts, feelings, words and deeds.

And to back that up, the first of the 48 methods is “talmud,” meaning “learning.” That’s the essential first step, but it is not sufficient on its own. There are 47 additional steps or factors involved in internalizing the teachings of the Torah in a transformative way.

Further down the list comes another one of these crucial steps to reaching the spiritual heights on a Jewish path, which isnosei b’ol im chaveiro. That phrase translates as, “bearing the yoke with one’s friend,” and more idiomatically as: “bearing the burden with another.”

Pay careful attention to the wording that says, “bearing the burden with,” not “for.” We do not acquire Torah and so develop ourselves spiritually through enabling behaviour or creating co-dependency in another person. Each of us must carry our own “yoke” but how good and how satisfying and how human it is to lend a shoulder to help carry the load.

The great leader of the Mussar movement Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, known as the Alter of Kelm, made this practice the cornerstone of his teaching. He encouraged his students to be the kind of people who helped other people, not just because that is an ethical imperative, but because making the effort to help another person bear their burden causes us to develop the sensitivity to notice another person’s struggles, the compassion to want to take on a portion of the load, and the humility to do it for the sake of that other person, not for reasons of self-glorification or even for the thanks.

You can see that the Alter of Kelm saw that the practice of helping other people to bear their burdens as an effective way to refine one’s own character. This was his answer to Hillel’s question: If I am only for myself, what am I?

The Alter of Kelm died in 1898 and here we are, 130 years later, still learning from him. I wonder if in the year 2156 people will be aspiring to be the kind of people who don’t respond to their neighbour’s difficulties with offers of help but with grievance and threats? Since Pirkei Avot teaches first principles of human life, and has been a revered text for 1,800 years, my money (literally and metaphorically) is on “bearing the burden with another.”

Tradition, scripture and experience attest to that choice.

Each of us needs to find our own ways to bear the burden of the other. For some, that will take the form of caring for your own family. For others, their community, or their nation, or for creation itself. There is no hierarchy here.

What opportunities are calling to you to step up to helping others and, in the process, to refine your own soul?

I invite you to share your thoughts.

Alan