Ten years ago this Shabbat, our oldest daughter Isa (who just graduated college!) celebrated becoming bat mitzvah in Jerusalem. It feels like forever ago. So much has happened in our lives and in our world over the past decade. Even though so much time has passed, I remember that weekend so clearly. Family and friends from around the world joined us. Dear colleagues helped our daughter prepare her Torah reading and d’var Torah. We shared wonderful meals together and danced the night away at Beit Shmuel—a part of the Reform movement’s campus in Jerusalem which includes a stunning view of the walls of the Old City. What I remember best, though, is sitting in shul with Jacqueline and our younger daughters, listening to Isa deliver her words of Torah in Hebrew.
She spoke about the mitzvah mentioned in this week’s Torah portion—parashat Mishpatim— that requires us to return lost objects to our neighbors, to strangers, and even to our enemies. Isa noted that the example given in the Torah mentions a lost ox or donkey. She then asked the logical question: Does this law apply to all lost objects, or just oxen and donkeys? The commentators suggest that this is an example of a type of logic known as כְּלַל וּפְרַט וכְּלַל (klal u’frat v’klal): “[reasoning] from the general to the particular and then back to the general.” The general principle is that we should return lost objects. The specific example given is a lost ox or donkey. Imagine the effort—and even danger—involved in returning a lost ox, a large animal that sometimes gores people. Isa noted that if we are required to return objects even when doing so requires great effort, it is all the more imperative that we return those lost objects which can be returned more easily.
This type of Rabbinic reasoning is an important halakhic (Jewish legal) principle that also points to a broader idea about personal responsibility. The individual (the פְּרַט prat or the particular as it were) has a responsibility to the collective (the כְּלַל klal or the general).
It’s a lesson we are experiencing at this moment in ways that we could not have fully imagined a decade ago. Wearing a mask in public, respecting social distancing guidelines, and ensuring that everyone who is eligible to be vaccinated and boosted does so are some of the ways in which we as individuals can fulfill our communal obligations.
To learn more about how Jewish legal authorities understand the individual and communal obligations of the COVID-19 pandemic, click here.
— Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback