The Morality Business

Advertisements
Advertisements

3 min read

FacebookTwitterLinkedInPrintFriendlyShare

Vayetzei (Genesis 28:10-32:3 )

Why didn’t Jacob just mind his own business?

In this week's Torah portion, Jacob arrives in Haran and meets some shepherds. He notices that they are sitting around chatting and immediately admonishes them: If you are working for someone, then you are being paid to tend that person's sheep, not to sit and talk. And if you are self-employed, you should get on with life. Either way, you shouldn't be sitting around doing nothing.

It turns out that these men were waiting to water their sheep, and could not do so until there were enough of them to remove a rock from over the well. Jacob single-handedly moves the rock and allows them to get on with shepherding.

It seems more than a little strange that Jacob, for whom these shepherds are complete strangers, immediately launches into a critique of their values. Surely this is none of his business. They are not his sheep, not his shepherds, and this is not even his country. Who is he to show up and tell them how to behave?

The Sages elucidate from this a fundamental Jewish idea.

We live in a world whose motto is: Live and let live. The way another person conducts himself is his own business. As long as he's not bothering you, let him get on with it. It's none of your business to tell others what to do.

This is not at all a Jewish value. Judaism says: Live, and also help others to live more meaningful, fulfilled and happy lives. 'Live and let live' is an attitude without concern for others. Let people destroy their own lives, as long as they don't bother me in the process. Someone who cares about other people, will not 'let live,' if that living is self-destructive or harmful to anyone. In the same way as no one would allow someone to jump off a building without trying to talk him down, so too, Judaism says, that no one should allow another person to waste his life without trying to educate him differently.

Far from being "none of his business," the men at the well were precisely Jacob's business. Infusing society with ethics and values was the "family business" that Jacob had inherited from his father, Isaac, and grandfather, Abraham. It may not have been a public company, but nonetheless it was a business that eventually changed the way the world thinks. (The world's two largest religions eventually became its major shareholders.)

For we Jews, morality is still very much the family business. It's not enough to be moral ourselves. When we see immorality, it is also our business to try to educate - as Jacob did 4,000 years ago with the shepherds of Haran.

Click here to comment on this article
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
EXPLORE
LEARN
MORE
Explore
Learn
Resources
Next Steps
About
Donate
Menu
Languages
Menu
oo
Social
.