{"id":32853,"date":"2013-06-24T21:45:53","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T21:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=32853"},"modified":"2013-06-24T21:48:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T21:48:00","slug":"united-we-stand-how-we-can-unify-before-tragedy-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/united-we-stand-how-we-can-unify-before-tragedy-strikes\/","title":{"rendered":"United We Stand: How We Can Unify Before Tragedy Strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"united_we_stand\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on<\/i>\u00a0jewinthecity.com<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cUnited We Stand.\u201d These are words that comfort us when tragedy strikes on a mass level. The first time I remember this phrase being used was after 9\/11, though some say its origins go as far back as Aesop. When we are attacked on a 9\/11 or in the recent Boston Marathon bombing, we instinctually feel the need to increase unity in the world. There is somehow a sense that unity is an antidote to evil.<\/p>\n

But hundreds of years before Aesop lived, the Torah was talking about such unity. In preparation for receiving the Torah, we are told \u201cVayichan sham Yisrael neged hahar.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0That \u201cIsrael encamped there across from the mountain.\u201d But the word\u00a0\u201dvayichan\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(encamped) is written in the singular, when it would have been grammatically correct to have written it in the plural: \u201cvayichanu.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Rashi, a leading Torah commentator, explains that such phraseology is used in order to teach us about the state of the Jewish people at that moment. They were\u00a0\u201cK\u2019ish echad belev echad.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Like one man with one heart. Complete unity: a state that was necessary in order for a people to experience the Divine \u2013 the Ultimate Unity \u2013 in the most profound way in history.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine that so many different people could have gotten past their differences \u2013 especially a people like the Jews who are famous for arguing! But then I think back to those moments right after the explosions \u2013 as we\u2019re all watching the footage together, waiting together, praying together, and I think that for a brief moment, we\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0get past our differences. We let go of our pettiness. The things that seemed so major just a moment before the attack become inconsequential as the magnitude of the evil that we witnessed overcomes us.<\/p>\n

The Jewish people, remarkably, were able to capture that level of unity without having to experience a mass attack immediately beforehand. Perhaps, knowing what was soon to come was enough for them to get past their bickering. But what about us? Can we add more unity to the world\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0tragedy strikes? Must we only stand united with one another after the blood of innocents is shed?<\/p>\n

\u201cWith one heart.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0As the Children of Israel encamped across from the mountain, even their heart \u2013 their thoughts, their opinions \u2013 were unified. Such a level of unity is nearly impossible for us to come by.\u00a0I can write the most seemingly innocuous things online, and I\u2019m always so struck by how some people interpret my words. I\u2019m always surprised how people can be offended by something\u00a0I meant to be completely harmless. And that\u2019s because the person commenting is speaking more to his experiences in life than what my words actually said.<\/p>\n

The world is full of very different people with vastly diverse backgrounds. The majority of us are decent and we want to increase goodness in the world, yet how that goodness will be achieved is something we can\u2019t ever seem to agree on. For some, goodness can only be attained \u00a0through liberal ideology. For Conservatives, Liberalism couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. Gay rights activists are certain that they are adding light to the world, while the marriage traditionalists feel that theirs is the way to preserve goodness in society. Same goes for the abortion, capital punishment, and Women of the Wall debates. How on EARTH could the people on either side of this aisle ever come together with one heart unless a tragedy strikes? It seems the differences are just too vast.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike one man.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0There is not one singular component that makes up a man. Instead, a human being consists of a myriad of pieces moving in different directions, each serving a unique function, yet all ultimately working together. How can we tell that a man is \u201cunified?\u201d Because when his hand is hurting him, he won\u2019t just hack it off. It might be causing him problems, it might be irritating him, driving him absolutely crazy, but he would never harm his hand because it\u2019s part of him and a normal healthy person would never self-destruct.*<\/p>\n

THAT is how we must treat each other in our disagreements. We can debate ideas, but we must never tear one another down. We must give each other the benefit of the doubt and not automatically assume the worst about each other\u2019s intentions, words, or actions. We must forgive. We must grant second chances to people who have shown remorse. And we must be very careful with our speech. Words are the instruments that God used to create our world. Our words can build worlds or they can destroy them.<\/p>\n

Words have always been powerful, but now, in the era of social media, our words have become\u00a0more powerful than ever. We can spread the most hateful, venomous sentiments about another person to every corner of the earth, instantaneously, and we can do so anonymously! We can do so with no fear of repercussion as we assassinate another person\u2019s character on a medium where everything is immortalized. We ARE one body, interconnected by a Godly essence running through each and every one of us. But we are sick right now, because we are a body that inflicts self-harm up until the moment that we realize we\u2019re under attack from an outside force. And only then for a short time, are we able to band together and stop tearing each other down.<\/p>\n

\u201cLove your neighbor as yourself.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0I\u2019ve know that Torah verse for years. Its meaning \u2013 I thought \u2013 was simple: treat your neighbor how you\u2019d want to be treated. But I believe that \u201clove your neighbor as yourself\u201d can be understood on deeper level in light of what we just said. Don\u2019t simply love your neighbor as you\u2019d want yourself to be loved \u2013 love your neighbor as if he IS yourself \u2013 as if you ARE one being. As if hurting him hurts you.<\/p>\n

Now, that is a kind of unity that we should all stand for.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*The exception to this rule is if a limb is gangrene\u00a0and begins to destroy the entire body if left untreated. When we come across people \u2013 whose sole purpose is to destroy the whole \u2013 then we must \u201camputate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is foolish for us to wait until a tragedy happens before Klal Yisroel starts acting as one cohesive unit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":790,"featured_media":32860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nUnited We Stand: How We Can Unify Before Tragedy Strikes - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/united-we-stand-how-we-can-unify-before-tragedy-strikes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"United We Stand: How We Can Unify Before Tragedy Strikes - 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