Thousands of years ago, two rabbinic scholars debated, what is the most important verse in the bible. Rabbi Akiva insisted that it was “Love Thy Neighbor as thyself.” Another scholar, Ben Azzai, countered with a verse from Genesis, “This is the book of the generations of Adam, on the day G-d created him.” Without a doubt, today’s media critics would question how anyone could possibly vote for “This is the book of Generations of Adam,” over the more obvious “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself.”
So how did Ben Azzai’s odd choice make it to the finals? The answer is he introduced a profound concept challenging Akiva’s premise of Neighborhood. What Ben Azzai said is that most of us are content to live our lives in a very narrow swath of space, where our values of kindness and respect are entrusted only to those we know, who look like us, who are from the same economic strata, share the same religious and political beliefs. In other words, our values never extend beyond our neighborhoods.
Ben Azzai posited his revolutionary idea of raising the bar, reminding us that leaders must have the capacity to reach out beyond their comfort zones. That it is not enough to care for your neighbors, that we have an obligation to our generations – to bear responsibility beyond our zip codes – to pass on what is best in us to those who will live on after us. That nothing enduring was created by hate and no future made brighter by tyranny. And that no generation has the right to get richer by living off the dividends that makes the next generation poorer.
Your Neighbor,
Rabbi Marvin Heir
Rabbi Marvin Hier is the Founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, CA. www.wiesenthal.com
