Crocodile Tears

What does "nosei b'ol" mean?

In the Agudah convention last week, Rabbi Uri Deutsch addresses the topic of how Torah Jews in America should feel at this stage in the war. He says that they should not feel too upset, and they should follow the example of charedim in Israel, for whom life is essentially back to normal (I would personally like to point out that for charedim in Israel, the war never really changed their lives to begin with). At minute 45 - I had to listen to it twice to ensure my ears weren’t deceiving me - Rabbi Deutsch says that the Gedolim have told us that the most acute gezerah that the residents of Israel are facing is the need to raise money for the yeshivos and struggle against the draft.

Of course the idea that life is essentially back to normal would come as a surprise to members of my shul, who just went to the funeral and shiva of a young man from our shul who lost his life defending Israel. It would also come as a surprise to the hundreds of thousands of people in Israel for whom the last few months have been anything but normal, with family members being away from their jobs and family lives and risking life and limb in Gaza and Lebanon. And the notion that the gravest problem is the financial cutbacks for charedim, and the threat that they might have to help reduce the burden on reservists, would strike everyone outside of the charedi community as, frankly, evil.

Rabbi Yisroel Reisman, who was sitting in the same panel, was clearly uncomfortable with what Rabbi Deutsch said. He responds that “without contradicting anything Rav Deutsch said” he feels that it’s important on a personal level for people to feel more of the pain that thousands of families in Israel are undergoing, and not just to mumble Tehillim at the end of davening, but to perhaps take on some sort of personal kabbalah (spiritual effort).

While Rabbi Reisman is light years ahead of Rabbi Deutsch in terms of basic Jewish values and morality, the idea that it’s enough for people to try to “feel the pain” is severely deficient.

The Gemara (Taanis 11a) speaks about how when the nation is suffering, an individual not experiencing that suffering should not continue life as normal, but rather should ensure that he also suffers in order to be able to empathize with them. Chazal also stress that when the Jews were suffering in Egypt, Moshe actually went out to see their situation. And והיה נותן כתפיו ומסייע לכל אחד ואחד מהם - Moshe would “put his shoulders” to the task and help each of them.

Rav Wolbe, in Alei Shur vol. II p. 211, observes that the Gemara is telling us that the concept of nosei b’ol im ha-tazibur, sharing the burden with the community, is not just about feelings, but about practical action. He points out that in a similar vein, the mitzvah of visiting the sick is not just about expressing empathy, but also includes a requirement to see if the sick person has any needs that you can actually help with.

Now, Rav Wolbe’s emphasis is on engaging in a physical action in order to make oneself feel a more genuine and substantial empathy. But that refers to a situation where there’s nothing more that you can actually do. In a situation where you are in a position to reduce the person’s suffering by helping him, obviously that is what the concept of nosei b’ol demands. If you see someone collapsing under a heavy burden, you don’t go and pick up a rock to feel what it’s like - you go and help them with the burden! This is just as Moshe Rabbeinu actually physically put himself out to help the Jews.

Israel has been suffering the longest and most difficult war since it came into existence. Alas, for the charedim who are not part of Israel, the only war that they are fighting is the “war” for money and for not being involved in the actual war. But for those who take nosei b’ol im ha-tzibur seriously, it means actually sharing the burden. If you’re in America, that means working for political support and sending your financial support to strengthen Israel. And if you’re in Israel, it means building up a society that actually shares the physical responsibility of protecting the Jewish People. That’s what it means to be part of the tzibbur - to be part of Agudas Yisrael.