Responsibility and Duty
May 27, 2000

A story is told about a mother overhearing her son in prayer. He was listing all the things he wanted with the expectation that God would provide them, preferably at that very moment. His mother interrupted him and remarked, "Daniel, don't give so many orders. Just report for duty." Thomas Huxley, the renown British biologist, made that very same point a bit more elegantly. Addressing a graduating class of Oxford University, he said being a responsible person means making yourself "do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not."

Obligation and responsibility, however, are not popular words in today's culture. Often the call to "report for duty" falls on deaf ears. A number of years back, social critics spoke about the "Me" decade. It was a time when Americans firmly believed in the "Bill of Rights" but far less in a "Bill of Responsibilities." It appears that the "me decade" has now expanded into the very beginning of this new century. As a rabbi I find this disconcerting, because this aspect of American culture is a direct challenge to Jewish values. In Judaism it is not the individual's wants and desires that are central. Quite the opposite. Judaism is a system of mitzvot. Judaism is about obligations: to God, to the Jewish people, to the community, to your neighbor. The person who says to me, as often happens, "Rabbi, I am a good Jew; I feel Jewish in my heart," has it wrong. Being a Jew is not a matter of feeling. Being a Jew is a way of performing, of doing.

I have come to understand that the way we customarily translate the word "mitzvah" reveals a great deal about how we Jews have bought into the American idea of the voluntary society. How do we translate mitzvah? We say it is a good deed. But a good deed, as I understand it, is something that is admirable if you perform it, but certainly nothing is wrong if you don't. This interpretation fits in perfectly with the tone of American culture that only if it feels good, do you need do something. However, the true and accurate translation of mitzvah is "commandment." It is something that Judaism requires of you. Therefore, if you don't do it, you have committed a sin. I like to remind congregants that the famous, brief code of essential Jewish behavior is called the "Ten Commandments" not the "Ten Suggestions."

Psychologically, it makes a big difference whether you view a mitzvah as a commandment or as a voluntary undertaking. People who observe the dietary laws because they feel it is a mitzvah, a requirement of Judaism, go their entire lifetime without deviating from their religious diet even one day. In contrast, people who are voluntarily on a diet to lose weight have many days on which they break their self-imposed restrictions. An overweight colleague of mine once said to me, "If only chocolate contained pork, I would be slim." His point is that only when obligations are viewed as moral and religious imperative, as sacred duties, as mitzvot incumbent upon us regardless of how we feel at the moment, are they carried out with consistency and commitment.

For example, how do we view our wedding vow? Is it, as we call it in Hebrew - kiddushin, a holy bond - or is it a trial arrangement valid only for as long as it is fun and exciting? Which attitude do you thing contributes to a stable and lasting marriage?

How do we understand tzedakah, charity. Is giving charity a mitzvah or a suggestion? Halacha, Jewish law, lists it as a requirement. Regarding charity, a book on Jewish ethics makes this interesting statement. "A person who gives a thousand gold pieces to one worthy person is not as generous as an individual who gives one gold piece to a thousand different persons or worthy causes." The perplexing aspect to this statement is this: it would seem that a person's generosity is identical whether his same one thousand dollars goes to one source or a variety of sources. The answer lies in this thread I have been trying to trace that distinguishes voluntary, sporadic and impulsive doing good from steady commitment. A person who gives a thousand dollars to one cause is generous on one occasion but is not necessarily charitable in general. A charitable person gives continuously - to many causes and persons - because for him or her tzedakah is a constant responsibility and duty. It is a mitzvah.

Judaism's challenge to us is to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. We have commitments and duties that are incumbent upon us as Jews, as a husband or wife, as a parent or child, as American citizens and as citizens of the world. Consistency and perseverence are what are required of us. Judaism teaches us that life is not about sporadically doing a few good deeds. A life that finds favor in God's eyes is one in which we engage each day in the performance of acts of kindness and love and in the steadfast, faithful fulfilment of all our religious responsibilities. Let each of us strive to live that kind of life.