It's Time to Stand Up and Demand Responsibility Be Taken

I find it hard to read the news these days. Even more, as I do follow the news, I find myself viewing the myriad goings-on of our time through the lens of the middot/soul traits of the Mussar tradition, in which I spend so much of my time studying and teaching these days. This morning a rush of thoughts pulses through me in response to the events of just the past 24 hours. I will never be able to easily turn aside from the news of shootings. This week we have seen three such horrors in our country, two within hours of each other just yesterday. While it will yet take some time for the details of each of these horrors to be sorted out, it seems pretty clear from the early reports that the shooting in El Paso, Texas was the work of a young man consumed by the tidal wave of anti-immigrant, white supremacist rhetoric sweeping through our nation in recent years. It is a wave which seems to be gathering steam with each passing week as we head towards our next national election in November 2020.

Much will be made of the influences which led this evil person to pick up an assault weapon and brutally murder at least 29 innocent souls while wounding dozens more. Fingers will be pointed every which way as “thoughts and prayers” are offered up for the community most devastatingly impacted by this (not-even) latest act of horror within our nation. The rhetoric about gun rights and gun control will spiral, and I feel certain that our “leaders”, our elected officials now on their summer vacations will utter vacuous words which they will back up with continued gridlock once they return to D.C.

In the context of past horrors, we have at least witnessed leadership at the highest level of our government when our highest elected official, the President, would at least assume the role of “healer-in-chief.” Presidents of both parties have set aside their policy and other differences to step-up in moments of crisis to provide balm and leadership. While I suppose it is possible that the current occupant of the office may pretend to do so in this moment (beyond tweeting), I cannot help but think that he will but be pretending, as he will almost immediately resume his never-ending stream of hateful and divisive messages.

As I feel my blood boil at these latest horrific shootings, I cannot help but think about the Mussar value of Achrayut, about which I wrote on my previous blog, against the backdrop of a very different set of circumstances in February.

My teacher and friend, Rabbi David Jaffe has written, “It may be useful to look at responsibility in two ways; being responsible for the consequences of my own actions and taking responsibility for the well-being of others. The Hebrew word for responsibility is “achrayut”, which has at its root, “Aleph-Chet-Raysh.”  Depending on how this root is vocalized it has two different meanings that correspond to the two types of responsibility mentioned above. ‘Achar’ means ‘after,’ so that the middah relates to being responsible for the consequences of my actions . . . ’Acher’ means ‘other,’ which relates to taking responsibility for the well-being of others.”  Rabbi Jaffe also paraphrases, “The Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 54b) which says, ‘If one can protest wrongdoing in one’s family and does not - he is held responsible for the wrongdoing; If one can protest wrongdoing in his city and does not - he is held responsible for the wrongdoing; If one can protest wrongdoing anywhere in the world and does not - he is held responsible for the wrongdoing.’ Responsibility knows no bounds, however, even the Talmud seems to differentiate based on proximity of influence.

We need to take seriously both the achar (after) and acher (other) levels of this concept of Achrayut/responsibility. Even more, the Talmud’s teaching must be heard as a clarion call in these disturbing times. We must protest the hate. We must stand-up to the othering that is rampant across our nation. We are, I still want to believe, better than all of what is passing for national discourse. Your elected officials will undoubtedly be showing up in places you don't generally see them. Whether in person or via other means of communication, we must let them know that “business-as-usual” is NOT acceptable. Platitudes are meaningless. And the “game” of politics must be set aside to care for all those in our midst who bear the image of God.

And, as I think anew about Achrayut, responsibility, in the aftermath of yesterday’s horrors, especially the shooting in El Paso about which we at least have some early indication of the shooter’s motives, I for one, do not believe we can permit our highest elected official to shirk all responsibility. His hateful rhetoric about immigrants, Mexicans, nationalism, Muslims, and his flirting with white nationalism cannot be totally divorced from the horrors of El Paso. While he continues to lie about the numbers of incidents of terrorism committed by those who he regularly renders as “others,” (including elected officials of our own government) the reality of these past few years, in virtually every case, has been that the motivations of those committing the horrors have been fueled by anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and other extreme nationalistic and even jingoistic rantings. They are us – Americans stirred up by a steady stream of invective and hatred.

As I think about the value of Achrayut, here is the message I wish the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue could hear. “You cannot take responsibility for everything positive that happens and bear none for the negatives. Either you bear responsibility either way or you are an opportunist only willing to claim (falsely or otherwise) ownership of the good things in our country while denying any responsibility for the outcomes of your words, spoken, tweeted or screamed at a crowd of supporters whom you have whipped into a frenzy that leads to expression of overt hatred and spreads fear.”