Kol Yisra'el arevim zeh lazeh - Responsiblity for
other Jews
There are several traditions that members of the Jewish
people have in common, and one is the acknowledgement that they are members of
one people, and are therefore responsible for one another.
Kol Yisra'el arevim zeh lazeh.
It was that sense of responsiblity for other Jews that enabled the Jewish
people to rebuild the Jewish State after 2,000 years of Diaspora. That sense
of responsibility to other Jews reflects the one-ness of the Jewish people ...
Am Yisrael am echad ... the Jewish nation is one nation ... a nation that,
because it was scattered around the globe for so long, developed into a nation
of many colors, many customs and several uniquely Jewish common languages ...
but one classical language which they carefully preserved and re-established
as the common language in their re-established Jewish state.
Some Rishonim associate "yatza,
motzi" with the concept of "kol
Yisra'el `arevim zeh lazeh" (loosely - all
Jews are responsible for each other); they say that
yatza motzi because a
person has not really completely fulfilled his obligation as long as there is
still a Jew in the world who has not performed the mitzvah, so he too is still
chayyav.
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