dead meat and personal responsibility

17-1457a, originally uploaded by bpx.

The posts about personal responsibility fit nicely into the context of the Double Edged Sword conversation (knife, meser actually) between Sruli Gol and Luzi Mashber that I mentioned.

After Sruli Gol and Luzi just witnessed the encounter between Michel and Reb Dudi, who literally driven Michel within a thread from his death. Sruli says that it is only one edge of the sword but the other edge of the sword are the Breslevers like Luzi who tolerate a complete material breakdown of his students. This is one the greatest two pages in literature.

But let me paraphrase in the context of our conversation about responsibility. The culture of the big brother erodes the commitment to personal responsibility but there is also the second edge of this sword. A conviction that God is behind every breath removes the sense of responsibility from people (unintentionally Luzi). If you are in the cockpit of the machine that operates the universe why bother paying attention to your fellow human beings when you can solve all universes problems with a push of a mitzvah. So today’s orthodox society is a two edge slaughter house. On one hand the reliance on welfare, etc. absolves people from personal responsibility to the fellow beings on the other hand the conviction that all in the hands of God is the second edge of the sword. God save your soul if you find yourself in trouble with these people. Your family might bail you out, but that’s it. And if you don’t have support of the family you are a dead meat.

P.S. This finally explains the question of the incredible indifference to human beings in Crown Heights for example. I have discussed this issue with many friends and we could never figure out why Crown Heights is such an unfriendly place. I think this explains it.