Parashat Bereisheet 5785

What does it mean to be accountable, to take responsibility? Is it a Jewish imperative? Is it a secular concept? Whom does it apply to and in what circumstances? I’d like to unpack some answers by referring to a tragedy which took place 56 years ago, which I will try to compare and contrast with Biblical references. I will conclude with a recent event, all of which I hope will illustrate the importance of taking responsibility – both as members of the Jewish people striving to be faithful to our traditions, and as responsible members of the society in which we live.

A killing took place in the early morning hours of March 13, 1964 when a young woman, named Kitty Genovese, was murdered outside her apartment building in Kew Gardens, Queens. I was a young teen at the time, my family lived in Queens, not far from Kew Gardens. It could have been me – or my mother – or a friend….

What makes Kitty Genovese’s death stand out as particularly horrifying is that the newspaper articles and the news reports following her murder all reported that people stood around and watched – AND DID NOTHING – to save her, or even to call for help. Her killer confessed to the crime a few days later and was sentenced to life in prison. In the aftermath of this murder the phrase “Genovese Syndrome” or the “bystander effect”, is used to refer to the inaction of those who were present.

Taking responsibility is a theme which resonates, I believe, in almost every aspect of our lives – both as individuals and as part of a larger community. The first Torah portion of the new Jewish year, parashat Bereisheet teaches us lessons in taking responsibility – particularly today, as we’re surrounded by horrendous acts of violence, degrading antisemitic attacks and yes, unadulterated Jew hatred, the likes of which we haven’t witnessed since the Shoah.

Let’s start in the beginning, in Gan Eden. Even before God commanded Adam about what he could – and could not – eat in the garden, God placed him there to work it and to protect it – le’ovdah ule’shomrah. We understand what it means that God placed Adam in the garden. And we can understand that God charged him with working in the garden. But what does שמרה – to protect it, mean? Protect it from whom? There was no one else around!

Rabbi Yosie Levine, of the Jewish Center in New York City, says that le’shomrah, in addition to its meaning of protecting something, also means to accept responsibility. In his read, לשמרה is the imperative within which our commandments and their restrictions apply. God instructs Adam, the way he does, to make sure that nothing goes wrong on his watch. We know that it didn’t exactly work out that way. Enter Eve who proceeds to be enticed by the serpent to eat from that forbidden tree. As we know, instead of admitting guilt, she blames the serpent. And then Adam follows suit by blaming Eve. The responsibility of preserving the integrity of the heretofore perfect garden rested entirely on Adam’s shoulders. It is he who was instructed by God with the words le’ovdah ule’shomrah. And yet he is totally unable to step up and to recognize his failing. Both Adam and Eve deny personal responsibility for their actions. When God ask them Ayeka – Where are you? – they basically say, “not me”.

The pattern of not taking responsibility continues into the next generation with Cain and Abel. Tragically, we encounter the first instance of sibling rivalry, leading to the first murder. As it is written in Genesis 4, verses 8-10: “While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.” When the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?’ what followed was Cain’s no-responsibility response, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’”

Unlike his parents, Cain doesn’t deny personal responsibility, he doesn’t say “Not me,” or “It wasn’t my fault.” What he does deny is moral responsibility – in questioning why he should be concerned with the welfare of anyone but himself. Sadly, we hear the voice of Cain throughout history.

Cain, then, makes the same mistakes as his parents. When Adam falls short, God asks, איכה – Ayeka – Where are you? – in the hope that this will provide Adam an opening to explain his guilt. When Cain does wrong, God asks him a question without blame or accusation. God begins with a question in both instances, offering the guilty one the opportunity to accept responsibility for what he has done wrong. In neither of these Biblical accounts does that happen, however.

Continuing the theme of responsibility, let’s examine what Moses does while he was still living in Pharaoh’s palace. All the years growing up, Moses knew who he was and he knew of the suffering of the Israelites so when he sees an Egyptian beating an Israelite slave, the text says: “He looked this way and that and saw no one” – vayar ki ein ish (Ex. 2:12), or more literally, ‘he saw that there was no man’. He then killed the Egyptian officer.

We can understand this literally, namely that there was no one there or we can think of it another way – that the phrase means, “he looked this way and that and saw that there was no one else” – – no one, that is, who was willing to intervene.

With that reading, we have another instance of the “Genovese syndrome”, or “the bystander effect”. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks refers to studies done by social scientists to try to determine what happens in situations like this. Some argue that the presence of other bystanders impacts an individual’s interpretation of what is happening. Since no one else is coming to the victim’s rescue, the bystanders conclude that what is happening is not an emergency.

Others, though, argue that the key factor is diffusion of responsibility. People assume that since there are many people present, someone else will surely step forward and act. That seems to be what was happening in the case of Moses because no one else came to the rescue of the Hebrew slave.

It took a Moses to act which is what made him a role model for responsible behavior. “Responsibility appears when we are active, not passive, when we do not wait for someone else to act because perhaps there is no one else – at least not there/not here, not then/not now. When bad things happen, some look the other way. Some wait for others to act. Some blame others for failing to act. Some just complain”. On the other hand. there are some people who decide that if something is wrong they should try to fix it, to make it right. “Like Moses, they are the role models of responsibility. They are the ones who make a difference in their, and in our, lifetimes. They are the ones who make our world a better place. They are our shomrim – from le’shomrah, the word we learned about with Adam. They are the ones who take responsibility”.

A much more recent example of a shomer is Gilad Shalit. Gilad was the Israeli Army sergeant who was captured by Hamas in June of 2006 and held captive in the Gaza strip for five years and who was finally released, thank God, in October of 2011.

On the day that Gilad was captured, circumstances reversed. As an IDF soldier, Gilad was meant to be our shomer – a defender of the Jewish state and the Jewish people who was taking responsibility for defending the State of Israel. And yet it was all of us who became his shomrim – waiting, watching, rallying, petitioning, praying for his release, in a very real way, taking a part of the responsibility for his safety and for his safe return home. Gilad reminded us that we are blessed with an ability – if we choose to exercise it – to transcend obstacles of time and place and that we, too, can rise to the level of being ישראל שומרי – shomrei Yisrael – of accepting responsibility on behalf of our people.

Coming back to the word Ayeka, Rabbanit Oshra Koren, the founder of Matan HaSharon (Women’s Torah Institute), cited Rav Avraham Kook, z”tl, to explain that the original wrong which Adam committed was not the eating of the fruit and violating God’s commandment, but rather of not knowing what to answer when God came looking for him after partaking of the fruit.

Rabbanit Koren offered the following questions: “What did Adam bring to the world? What did he contribute? Was he his best self”?

I submit that these are the questions each one of us must ask ourselves during this time of year, as we’ve just observed the Yamim Noraim – the Days of Awe and the festivals of Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret and Simhat Torah.

Rabbanit Koren continues, “What would you answer if God came looking for you”? If He said, “Ayeka?”

In thinking about this for myself, I came up with the following: What have I done this year to bring joy to my loved ones and to be there for them and for my friends and for those who count on me? What have I done to improve the lives of the hungry and the sick and those less fortunate me? What have I done to combat antisemitism and to increase understanding among those who are different from me? What have I done to help ease the pain and the unthinkable suffering of our brothers and sisters in Israel following the day that changed their – and our – lives forever: October 7, 2023? Am I being my best self to those with whom I interact? If not now, when?

Finally, back to our Biblical theme, the questions which the life we lead needs us to answer is: Which voice will we listen to? Will we heed the voice of desire, as did Adam and Eve? Will we listen to the voice of anger, as Cain did? Or will we follow the voice of God, calling on us to make our world a more just and gracious and responsible world? A world in which we don’t live by the “Genovese Syndrome” or by the “bystander effect”.

As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has memorably said, “Let us remember that a responsible life is a life that responds”.

Shabbat Shalom
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Rabbi Marge Wise (AJR ’21), is also known as the Journey Rabbi (journeyrabbi.com). Her passion is outreach, including teaching prospective Jews by choice and accompanying them on their journey to formal conversion. She teaches in person and on Zoom – currently her students span 5 continents and as many time zones!