BaltimoreJewishLife.com | How to Achieve Achdut

Unity is understandably hard to achieve. Hashem creates each person as unique – both in their outward appearance as well as in their inner thoughts.^{^[1]} Additionally, we are each supposed to view the world as created for us.^{^[2]} This naturally causes us to view others as competitors.^{^[3]}

The answer lies in understanding the basis of our achdut, which is rooted in our shared fate, mission, and existence.

All Jews share the same fate and mission. This is why Rav Shimon Bar Yochai compared the Jewish people to passengers on a ship. Each passenger may see himself as disconnected from the others, but the hole he drills under his seat affects them all.^{^[4]} We, too, should realize that our fate hinges on that of all of our people. A sin of another Jew is considered like my own because we rise and fall together. Our mission is only complete when we all complete it. “Kol Yisrael areivim zeh ba’zeh – All Jews are ‘mixed’ [intertwined] with one another.”^{^[5]}

Sadly, we do not always realize or remember this fact. This requires Hashem to use antisemitism to jog our memory. Antisemites do not distinguish between types of Jews. They hate those who are religious and secular, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, socialist and communist, and Litvak and Chassid all equally. Indeed, we are all in the same boat.

Jewish unity is rooted in more than just our fate and mission. It also reflects the true nature of our existence.

The Rambam explains that, because we are all children of the same G-d, we should see ourselves as brothers, as members of one family.^{^[6]} This is why the Torah introduces the prohibition against divisiveness (lo titgodedu) with the phrase “banim atem laHashem Elokeichem – you are Hashem’s sons.”^{^[7]} We are all Hashem’s children, making us all brothers.

The Maharal goes even further by asserting that the Jewish people are a single ontological entity. Just as Hashem, our Father, is one indivisible entity, we (l’havdil) are one as well.^{^[8]} The Maharal’s assertion explains the Yerushalmi’s comparison of revenge taken by a Jew against another Jew to a right hand cutting the left one as revenge for the former having cut the latter.^{^[9]} A Jew striking another Jew is comparable to a person cutting off his own nose to spite his face.

Rav Shimon Shkop, the great pre-World War II rosh yeshiva, presented this idea in very strong terms. He maintained that only crude people see their existence as limited to themselves. A Jew should view his existence as inclusive of the rest of the Jewish people. Only this view, seeing ourselves as inextricably linked to the rest of the Jewish people, makes each of us whole.^{^[10]}

The Sefat Emet explained that this is how Hashem solved the dispute between the rocks under Yaakov’s head by merging them into one stone.^{^[11]} The rocks Yaakov placed under his head when he slept at Bet El argued over which would have the zechut of having Yaakov’s head directly upon it. Hashem resolved the debate by transforming all the stones into a single large rock. Though the transformation did not place each stone directly under Yaakov’s head, it resolved the issue by helping the stones “realize” that they were all part of a single larger entity. Which part of the rock Yaakov placed his head upon no longer mattered because each stone came to view itself as part of one unified rock.

Rav Kook^{^[12]} saw this existential unity as one of Judaism’s central tenets. He therefore viewed any attempt to divide the Jewish community as equivalent to Shlomo HaMelech’s “suggestion” to cut the (disputed) baby in half.^{^[13]} Dividing the Jewish people is as inconceivable and as morally repugnant as dividing (and thus killing) a living human being.

The Maharal^{^[14]} adds a third basis for Jewish unity: that the Jewish people also share one soul. We are more than just one existential entity; we are actually of one soul. Rav Kook^{^[15]} saw this as a distinguishing characteristic of the Jewish people. Other nations are collectives of random, independent people; the Jewish people consists of individuals whose souls all emanate from a shared higher source.

Because our unity is rooted in our shared soul, the more we focus on spirituality, the closer we should feel to other Jewish soulmates. The Ba’al HaTanya^{^[16]} elaborates on this point. He explains that our view of other Jews reflects how we see our souls and spiritual life relative to our physical existence. Anyone who views their own soul as central should see all other Jews as part of their own basic existence.

Hashem helps us appreciate our relationship with all Jews by instilling a sense of Jewish family. The aforementioned Midrash that compares the Jewish people to passengers in the same boat begins by using this point to explain Yirmiyahu HaNavi’s comparison of the Jewish people to a sheep.^{^[17]} The Midrash explains that just as a lamb feels the pain inflicted on one of its limbs throughout its entire body, so the Jewish people all feel the pain inflicted upon every other Jew.^{^[18]}

Our feeling of each other’s pain is indeed a unique phenomenon. No other nation feels this emotion as strongly because no other nation is a true existential entity. The Jewish people are. The feelings we have for one another reflect and should remind us of this reality.

Understanding the basis of our unity and feeling the pain of other Jews is not enough to foster unity. We need to increase our consciousness of and care for other Jews. In addition, we have to relate to fellow Jews in ways that express our appreciation of our relationship.

A first step towards these goals is to greet and interact with fellow Jews in a warm and friendly way.^{^[19]} Doing so shows our affection for them and our recognition of our special relationship. And, like the reflection of a “face in water,” our warmth will inspire a reciprocal response.^{^[20]}

May our appreciation for our achdut with other Jews inspire us to treat and greet all Jews as family.

Rav Reuven Taragin is the Dean of Overseas Students at Yeshivat Hakotel and the Educational Director of World Mizrachi and the RZA.

^{^[1]} See Sanhedrin 38a and Tosefta, Berachot 6:5. See also Yerushalmi Berachot 63b, which links our differences in outlook to our differences in physical appearance. See also Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 7.

This is why achdut does not mean uniformity. See Akeidat Yitzchak, Bamidbar 74 and Olat Re’iyah 1:330.

^{^[2]} Ibid., Sanhedrin.

^{^[3]} This is even more true for Jews. See Netzach Yisrael 25.

^{^[4]} Vayikra Rabbah 4:6.

^{^[5]} Sifra, Bechukotai 7; Shavuot 39a; and Sanhedrin 27b. The word “areivim,” which the source uses to describe our relationship, literally means “mixed together.” Also, the formulation of zeh ba’zeh means mixed with one another.

^{^[6]} Hilchot Matnot Aniyim 10:2.

^{^[7]} Ritva, Yevamot 13b; Gur Aryeh, Devarim 14:1.

^{^[8]} Gur Aryeh, Devarim 14:1. See also Netzach Yisrael 11; Ohr HaChayim, Shemot 39:32. See also Maharal’s Netivot Olam (Netiv HaTzedakah 6), where he adds that our shared land, Eretz Yisrael, also unifies us.

^{^[9]} Yerushalmi, Nedarim 30b.

^{^[10]} Shaarei Yosher, Hakdamah. He uses this idea to explain the words of Hillel in Avot 1:14. The idea also explains the words of Hillel in Sukkah 53a.

^{^[11]} Rashi, Bereishit 28:11.

^{^[12]} Orot HaTechiyah 20, Arpilei Tohar pg. 101–102. This idea appears in a similar way in the writings of Rav Kook’s rebbe, the Netziv; see Meishiv Davar 1:44.

^{^[13]} Melachim I, Perek 3.

^{^[14]} Netivot Olam, Netiv HaTzedakah 6. See also Ohr HaChayim, Shemot 39:32.

^{^[15]} Orot Yisrael 2:3, Shemonah Perakim 1:527.

^{^[16]} Sefer HaTanya 32. See also Orot Yisrael (Rav Kook) 2:3.

^{^[17]} Yirmiyah 50:17.

^{^[18]} Vayikra Rabbah 4:6.

^{^[19]} Avot 1:15 and 3:12. These sources speak of greeting all people this way. Such a greeting is most appropriate and important when interacting with fellow Jews. See also Netivot Olam, Netiv HaTzedakah 6.

^{^[20]} Mishlei 27:19. See also Likutei Moharan, Kamma 27.