 | Time and again, the world reminds us that we all are completely and utterly in it together. Still we forget. Circumstances get the better of us. Reactions get the better of us. Leaders turn us off (or worse). We turn away from each other. It's like drilling a hole in our shared lifeboat. |
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
Vayikra 5786 (2026)
Judaism is a team sport. Spirituality, faith and ethics are intensely personal, and Judaism is about what we do together.
We are connected. The pandemic taught us so. Economics and climate change teach us so. We all felt what happened last Thursday at Temple Israel outside Detroit, Michigan. There are reasons why the only effective response to hate is to double down on community and reach across difference – even if not 'comfortable,' even if not 'deserved.'
Understood this way, community is inherently spiritual. At holidays when we personally don't feel like celebrating, community lifts us. When we personally feel narrow, sad, angry or lost, community is spacious enough to hold it all. For our foibles and growing edges, community is our schoolhouse: ideas and people that challenge us also can have much to teach us.
Who leads such a community? Who makes such a community happen?
In most communities, some leaders have named roles – but most don't. Especially in small communities, all are leaders because all are connected and therefore impact each other. What each of us does affects the whole. When any of us doesn't act like the leader we are, or if we go astray in our leadership, invariably community suffers.
Torah knew this from the start, which is why the Book of Leviticus, which opens this week, immediately addressed what happens if a leader goes astray (Lev. 4:1-3):
Vayikra 5786 (2026)
Judaism is a team sport. Spirituality, faith and ethics are intensely personal, and Judaism is about what we do together.
We are connected. The pandemic taught us so. Economics and climate change teach us so. We all felt what happened last Thursday at Temple Israel outside Detroit, Michigan. There are reasons why the only effective response to hate is to double down on community and reach across difference – even if not 'comfortable,' even if not 'deserved.'
Understood this way, community is inherently spiritual. At holidays when we personally don't feel like celebrating, community lifts us. When we personally feel narrow, sad, angry or lost, community is spacious enough to hold it all. For our foibles and growing edges, community is our schoolhouse: ideas and people that challenge us also can have much to teach us.
Who leads such a community? Who makes such a community happen?
In most communities, some leaders have named roles – but most don't. Especially in small communities, all are leaders because all are connected and therefore impact each other. What each of us does affects the whole. When any of us doesn't act like the leader we are, or if we go astray in our leadership, invariably community suffers.
Torah knew this from the start, which is why the Book of Leviticus, which opens this week, immediately addressed what happens if a leader goes astray (Lev. 4:1-3):
| וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יהו''ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃ דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֮ לֵאמֹר֒ נֶ֗פֶשׁ כִּֽי־תֶחֱטָ֤א בִשְׁגָגָה֙ מִכֹּל֙ מִצְוֹּת יהו''ה אֲשֶׁ֖ר לֹ֣א תֵעָשֶׂ֑ינָה וְעָשָׂ֕ה מֵאַחַ֖ת מֵהֵֽנָּה׃ אִ֣ם הַכֹּהֵ֧ן הַמָּשִׁ֛יחַ יֶחֱטָ֖א לְאַשְׁמַ֣ת הָעָ֑ם | YHVH spoke to Moshe saying: Speak to the Children of Israel saying: When a person errantly sins in regard to any of YHVH's commandments about things not to be done, and does one of them – if the anointed priest sinned so that shame falls on the people ... |
... and then Torah described the required purification ritual in Judaism's ancient levitical system. Because modern Judaism has no anointed priesthood, in important ways these words aim at each of us.
We can't serve others who don't trust us. Our condition and energetics affect others, so Torah is keen to restore us – with good reason (Rashi, Lev. 4:3). We set examples for each other. One who goes astray models that it's okay to do likewise, so Torah is keen to redirect us back into the fold of community (B.T. Horayot 6b).
Because we so deeply affect each other, midrash long ago offered this tiny story about our text and its implications for shared community leadership (Vayikra Rabbah 4:6):
We can't serve others who don't trust us. Our condition and energetics affect others, so Torah is keen to restore us – with good reason (Rashi, Lev. 4:3). We set examples for each other. One who goes astray models that it's okay to do likewise, so Torah is keen to redirect us back into the fold of community (B.T. Horayot 6b).
Because we so deeply affect each other, midrash long ago offered this tiny story about our text and its implications for shared community leadership (Vayikra Rabbah 4:6):
A group of people sat on a boat. One person took out a drill and started drilling underneath their seat.
The others said, "What are you doing?!"
The person replied, "Why do you care? Aren’t I drilling underneath my own spot?"
The others replied, "But the water will rise and flood us all!"
Whoever we are, our inherently interconnected nature makes us leaders in community. However we act, and especially if we try to make an escape hatch, we undermine others.
Put another way, it is impossible to drill only under ourselves.
Put another way, it is impossible to drill only under ourselves.
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