Our Responsibilities to Others

What follows are the Jewish texts we discussed on the second day of Rosh Hashanah as we struggled with the question of what are our responsibilities to others, most especially in the shadow of the war in Gaza.

Leviticus 19:18
Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Exodus 23:9
You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.

Babylonian Talmud, Bava Metzia 62a
If two people are walking on a desolate path and there was a jug of water in the possession of one of them, and the situation was such that if both drink from the jug, both will die, as there is not enough water, but if only one of them drinks, he will reach a settled area, there is a dispute as to the halakha. Ben Petora taught: It is preferable that both of them drink and die and let neither one of them see the death of the other. This was the accepted opinion until Rabbi Akiva came and taught that the verse states: “And your fellow shall live with you,” (Leviticus 25:36) indicating that your life takes precedence over the life of the other.

Pirke Avot 1:14
Rabbi Hillel used to say: If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am for my own self, what am I? And if not now, when?

Midrash Mishlei 25:21
The Talmudic sage Rabbi Hama b. Rabbi Hanina says, “Even though your enemy intended to kill you, if he arrives hungry or thirsty in your house, feed him and give him water. Why? ‘For you will be heaping live coals upon his head, and the Lord will reward (yeshalem) you’ (Proverbs 25:22)—do not read ‘will reward you’ but rather ‘will bring peace between him and you (yashlimenu).’”

Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 72a
If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.

Iris Eliya Cohen, “Hope”
If there is one righteous person in Gaza
It’s certainly a woman.
A mother or sister
With a beating heart masked in her chest.
And in the midst of all the destruction
Amidst the ruins
And in the captivity of hatred
She gathers a child
Son of the enemy
Softly whispers some words
Gives him a drink of
Milk and a morsel of bread
As if he were her son.