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at The 92nd Street Y, New York. Supported by The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity
Nov 10, 2005
Professor Wiesel speaks about the concept of community within the context of Hillel the Elder’s precept Al tifrosh min hatzibur, which forbids the Jew to separate from the community and requires the Jew to participate in the community’s life in all its stages, through good and bad. After detailing Jewish law on collective obligations and collective punishment and the application of these laws in Jewish history and memory, Professor Wiesel acknowledges that Hillel had not foreseen Birkenau or Treblinka. During that period, he considers that these laws lost their efficacy and that those who separated from the community had a better chance of survival. Professor Wiesel teaches us that the life of a person is not comprised of years, but of moments; that a Jew’s connection to its community is physical, social, spiritual and metaphysical; that there is a word for that connection and that word is solidarity.
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