Climb Together or Fall Together

Imagine you're in a rowboat with another passenger crossing a vast lake. Suddenly, your companion pulls out a drill and begins boring a hole beneath his seat. Alarmed, you cry out, "What are you doing? You'll drown us both!"

He looks up and responds calmly, "I'm only drilling under my seat."

In this week’s Torah portion, the Torah outlines the abundant blessings we'll receive if we keep God's commandments and the fierce retribution we'll suffer if we ignore our divine mission.¹ Among these consequences is a peculiar detail that might seem insignificant at first glance. When fleeing from our enemies, the Torah warns, "You shall stumble, a man over his brother."²

What does the Torah add by telling us that you’ll stumble over one another?

Collective Responsibility

Rashi, drawing from the Midrash, explains: "One will stumble because of the sin of the other, for all Israelites are held responsible for one another."³ The Maharal of Prague⁴ deepens this insight, noting that the Torah specifically uses the term "brother" rather than "another man," emphasizing that we are fundamentally one family—a single organism with interconnected parts.

During my first year in yeshiva, my friend Mordechai and I created a vivid illustration of this principle. For a class presentation on this verse, we squeezed into a single oversized T-shirt, both our heads sticking out the neck hole. On my side, I performed the role of Mr. Health-conscious—sipping green juice and bicep-curling a dumbbell. Mordechai played the part of Mr. Indulgence—munching donuts and "smoking" a pretend cigarette.

Mid-exercise, I began coughing dramatically, turning to our classmates in feigned confusion: "How come I do everything right yet feel terrible?" In the spiritual ecosystem, no action exists in isolation. What affects one affects all. No man is an island, least of all a Jew.⁵

Top-Down Spirituality

The verse contains one more subtle yet powerful teaching. The Torah specifically uses the Hebrew word 'Ish' for the stumbling individual—a term that consistently refers to a person of stature and spiritual achievement, rather than the more common 'adam' or 'enosh' used for ordinary people. This deliberate word choice reveals a profound insight: even the most righteous among us cannot achieve spiritual elevation in isolation. The sins of our brothers and sisters create stumbling blocks for us all.

Rabbi Moshe Shneider, the Headmaster of Yeshivas Toras Emes⁶, addressed this principle when asked why righteous individuals perished during the Holocaust. He cited a striking passage from the Talmud⁷ where God initially instructs that, during a time of destruction, a protective mark be placed on the foreheads of the righteous. However, upon further consideration, God withdraws the protection because, despite their personal piety, the righteous leaders had not done enough to guide their straying brothers and sisters. Rabbi Shneider explained that, unless we do everything in our power to influence our brethren, even the most pious will be included in the Divine Judgement. During the Holocaust, the great leaders “looked out for their yeshivas, but not for the entire Jewish people.”

There is no solo ascent up the mountain of holiness; we either climb together or fall together. The isolationist "shtetl mentality" offers protection from harmful outside influences, but falls short of our ultimate mission. Yes, we must first secure our own spiritual oxygen mask, but then we must immediately turn to help others. As the great sage Hillel expresses so eloquently, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I?"⁸

The message for us is clear - We're all in this together! Taking responsibility starts with ourselves but must expand outward to our families, communities, nation, and eventually, the whole world. To incorporate this mindset into your daily life, try this: The next time you face a decision, ask yourself, "What is the best thing I can do right now for the Jewish Nation?" This simple shift transforms personal decisions into steps toward our collective redemption.

Shabbat Shalom!
Avraham

1. God never punishes for no reason. Divine punishment is like the rumble strips on the sides of the highway, bumping us around until we choose to return to the path of Truth
2. Vayikra 26:37 - "וְכָשְׁל֧וּ אִישׁ־בְּאָחִ֛יו"
3. Rather than reading “a man on his brother,” באחיו is understood as “because of his brother”
4. The great 16th century Torah luminary
5. When asked why he devoted so much energy to outreach toward secular Jews, the Lubavitcher Rebbe offered almost exactly the same analogy: "Imagine a body where one limb is hurting. Does the whole body not feel the pain and respond to heal it? So too with our people; we must care for every Jew as part of our own body."
6. His student Rabbi Moshe Shternbach, told over this piece of Torah in his name
7. Shabbas 55A
8. Midrash Shmuel on Pirkei Avos 1:14:

   ואפשר עוד כי בהיות שמחוייב כל אדם להוכיח את חבירו כעין שאמר הכתוב הוכח תוכיח את עמיתך לא יאמר אדם אחר שחבירי חייבים להוכיח אותי אם יראו בי עון אשר חטא מה לי להזהר עוד ולפשפש במעשי די לי שאני מקבל על עצמי להיות מקבל תוכחת מכל מי שיוכיחני וכל אשר יאמרו אלי אעשה אבל כל עוד שאין שום אדם מוכיח אותי מוכחא מילתא שאין בי שום דופי וכל חבירי לא ימצאו בי עון אשר חטא לז"א אם אין אני מפשפש במעשי ומשתדל בעדי להוכיח ולהיישיר את עצמי מי לי כלו' מי יוכיח אותי כי חבירי אפשר שאינם נותנים לב עלי ובין כה וכה אני מאבד את עצמי לדעת ואמר וכשאני לעצמי ביען צריך לאדם להיות עושה ומעשה זוכה לעצמו ומזכה לאחרים שלא די לו שהוא בעצמו ילך בדרכי יושר כי צריך לו ג"כ שידריך את אחרים ולכן אמר וכשאני משתדל בעדי להיישיר את עצמי מה אני כלומר מה אני עשיתי כלום יצאתי ידי חובתי לא בודאי כי עדיין צריך אני להשתדל להיישיר את אחרים באופן כי צריך לאדם לעשות שני דברים הפכיים אל הנוגע לעצמו יחשוב שאינו מוטל על שום אדם להוכיחו ומוכיח אין בלתו ואל הנוגע לאחרים יחשוב שמוטל עליו להוכיח את חבירו ואם לאו ישא עליו חטא ואמר ואם לא עכשיו אימתי דכיון שמוטל עלי לעשות שני דברים הללו להשתדל בעדי ובעד אחרים א"כ היום קצר והמלאכה מרובה ולכן אם לא עכשיו אימתי