Part of a Whole

Editor’s Update: Rabbi Arush is stressing the teaching “And you will love your fellow as yourself” as the essential teshuva (repentance) that we must all do to bring Mashiach in a merciful way. This article highlights how we can look at others to truly love them.

Can you imagine life without a leg, an arm, or even your elbow? Or maybe something as seemingly insignificant as fingernails? Your pinkie toe? How about eyebrows? Earlobes?
 
No? Me neither. Yet somehow all of us behave quite differently, without even realizing it.
 
There is an addition to the beginning of each chapter of Ethics of our Fathers, a passage from the Talmud, which boldly states:
 
“All of the people of Israel have a share in the world to come”
 
And that means everyone, because if it’s in the Talmud, it’s true. But that doesn’t make sense, because that guy is a criminal, and that lady wears tight shirts, and that neighbor doesn’t stop gossiping, and that Rabbi hit a student, and that family doesn’t give charity, and those people in that city aren’t religious, and that religious city just had a child molestation scandal. So how come we all get a share? How come we are all equal?
 
Rabbi Schick zt”l, also known as the Tzaddik of Yavne’el (a Breslev city in the Galilee), taught that this statement comes at the beginning of each chapter to keep us all in our place. When we read Ethics of Our Fathers, the sublime sayings and life teachings of our holy sages, two things may happen: one, we might despair of ever being able to live up to such righteous standards, or two, we may even look down our noses at others who don’t. And so, this statement is entrenched in the beginning of each chapter, and hopefully in our hearts, so that we will remember that every Jew has his place, his time, his function, and, as such: his share in the World to Come.
 
Jewish esoteric thought teaches that there are 600,000 Jewish souls, only, and always. This means that some of us “share” souls. Not only the married couples, everyone. The same teaching expounds that these souls comprise “Israel” as if it were one single entity. Every Jew is in fact a tiny part of a united spiritual body or being, called Israel. This explains why we often meet people that we feel we have known forever after one minute of small talk.
 
This teaching comes to life in another famous saying of our sages: A good deed leads to another good deed, and a sin leads to another sin. On a simple level, we understand that once we break the barrier to choose to do either good or evil, we continue down that path. On a deeper level, since we are all connected spiritually, in groups of “soul roots” so to speak, one soul influences another: If I were to commit a sin, G-d forbid, then it would adversely affect those souls connected to me, a little like getting a runny nose which then becomes a congested chest. On the other hand, when you do a good deed, it impacts positively on those souls connected to you: kind of like taking Vitamin C for a runny nose, and it builds the entire immune system at the same time.
 
There are also 600,000 letters in the Torah.  Thus, every soul of Israel corresponds to a letter in Torah. Since every single letter of the Torah is significant and unique in its placement and purpose, so too is every single Jewish soul. Even more telling, is the fact that in order for a Torah scroll to be “kosher” not one single letter can touch another. If even one tiny part of one letter touches another, the entire scroll must be destroyed. Rabbi Schick interprets this to mean that where one Jewish soul exists, another is forbidden to approach: In other words, a soul can never stand in the place of another soul, therefore he cannot judge another soul, since our sages also teach us that we cannot judge others until we have stood in their place. Imagine that if a Torah scroll is to be destroyed by the slightest physical contact between letters, what we are doing spiritually to another when we encroach his space and judge him.
 
The depth of this spiritual structure is breath-taking, yet at the same time, it teaches us all such a beautiful and simple lesson, that is both rousing and humbling at the same time. We are all unique, we are all special, we all have a part to play, yet we are each only a tiny part of a much greater whole.
 
The human body has 613 organs, corresponding to the 613 commandments in the Torah, which has 600,000 letters, which correspond to the 600,000 souls of Israel, one body. What a beautiful cycle Hashem has created for us.
 
When we think about our bodies, we observe how each and every organ is a life unto itself, an independent and completely unique system. On the other hand, each one of these intricate biological creations weaves seamlessly into the next, to form the wonder that is the human body. We also observe how one tiny errant cell, multiplying at an abnormal rate, can wreak havoc, even cause death.
 
If each organ of our body spiritually corresponds to a certain Torah commandment, and those letters where the commandment appears in Torah correspond to Jewish souls, then that means that certain souls correspond to certain mitzvot more than others.
 
When we observe the People of Israel, we sadly see many divided groups, each one thinking that they have the “answer”, the “correct” way, the “preferred” spiritual path. In fact, when we look at it positively, we are really seeing different groups of people who excel at certain commandments. There are those who excel in settling the Land of Israel, and those who excel in modesty. Those who guard their eyes zealously, and those who are stringent in keeping kosher. There are Jews who live to do good deeds, those who open their houses to other Jews, and those who open their hearts and mouths to Hashem. Some of us live in joy,  still others mourn for our exile. Many of us overlap, and some of us never will.
 
What we see, with the People of Israel, is one body made up of different specialized organs, each with its own intricate system. Some of us are the veins, others are the arteries, and yet others may be limbs. Instead of looking at those who do things differently and criticizing their ways, we can be thankful that they are doing what we don’t, or cant, or don’t do so well, or as much: that they are just as much a functioning part of our spiritual body as we are, and that their function is vital to our own well-being.

Sometimes we need to take a medicine that adversely affects another part of the body. Other times we take a medication that has multiple benefits. The Torah is our source of life. As long as we are nourished by Torah, no matter what dose we are currently taking, large or small, we will continue to be a vital part of the most precious body of all: Israel.