Rabbi Tarfon would say: “The day is short. The tasks multiply. The workers are lazy. The reward is great. And, the boss is impatient.” [And he would continue] “It is not upon you [alone] to complete the task, but you are not free to exempt yourself from it [either].” - Pirkei Avot 2:14-15
I have always contended that the sages of the Mishnaic period, who wrote the texts that became the Pirke Avot, around 2,000 years ago, were about as pragmatic as we could hope for. The aphorisms that make up the zeitgeist of the rabbinic world are sometimes deep [Ben Zoma - Who is wise? The one who learns from everyone else.]; sometimes compassionate [Hillel - Do not judge your neighbor until you have stood in their place]; and sometimes consciously ironic [Shimon Ben Gamliel - I have spent my life at the feet of the Sages, and have learned that nothing is better than silence.] In most cases, their pithy phrasing can be easily applied to the world in which we live and the decisions with which we struggle.
When faced with challenges - whether personal or political - many of us try hard, but are often discouraged. We ask if we can really make a difference, and place ourselves at the beginning of Rabbi Tarfon’s quote above. There isn’t enough time. There’s so much work. No one wants to help. I don’t want to do it, no matter what they pay me. And, my boss has unrealistic expectations. To summarize, there is no way to do everything that is asked of us, that we ask of ourselves, that we will ever change things. To this, Rabbi Tarfon answers, “Nobody said you had to finish it.” We breathe a sigh of relief. It's not our job. Someone else will do it. But, he finishes,”But you can’t drop the ball, either.”
As with most rabbinic dicta, there are two sides balancing each other, and our job is to either find which side we need at the moment, or find some kind of balance. We should not be discouraged by the daunting tasks we face, and if we think we cannot accomplish all our dreams, then we may be right. However, we need to take up our small piece of the task, that generations before have begun, and it make take generations to come to finish.
Rabbi Tarfon could have laid out his advice in the opposite order: We have to engage in the task, even if there is not enough time and the work is ever greater. Instead he lays out all the objections first. Then comes the kicker. Despite it all, we still have responsibility.
The underlying message of the text is that there are others to help us in the work. If the responsibility rests not only on our shoulders it still rest collectively on the many shoulders of those around us. We owe the work not only to ourselves and our sense of what is right, but all to those who stand around us. We cannot expect them to do the work without us; we must all pitch in.
The next task, then is to determine what our tasks are. What are the ways that we, as a community, feel compelled to engage the world. Often, we have different ideas of the solutions, or even the methods to reach solutions, but we agree on most of the goals. If it was only one person’s responsibility, they could choose the means and the solution. Since we must work together with other - we must work together with others.
In the past few months, we have talked about political divisions within our community, and what it means to our conversation. Conversation is only the beginning - a necessary start to the tasks that do fall upon us all. As we study this trimester holiness in our actions, and head into our congregational Mitzvah Day in May, let us have the important conversations that gets us to roll up our sleeves and get to work. As a congregation, we have shown ourselves to be ready to do the hands-on social justice work - of housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked. Let’s continue to hold ourselves to the standard of Rabbi Tarfon, and get to work.
Rabbi Joel N Abraham
