“What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine.”
Socialism simplified.
The Talmud calls this attitude “ignorant” (Avot 5:10). People need to have their personal space and property respected; it’s critical to their emotional health and their productivity quotient. To think otherwise betrays ignorance of the human condition (I saw living proof of this when I lived in Communist Russia for six months).
Sure, Torah strongly advocates sharing. But when I choose to share my assets with you, it’s my Mitzvah. It isn’t because you have a right to my things.
So what’s mine is decidedly not yours. And vice versa.
So the next piece of that Talmudic quote is puzzling. A opinion is brought: “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours is a Sodomite characteristic (Sodom and Gomorrah are the epitome of selfishness and cruelty).“
What’s wrong with that statement? Why isn’t it a fair and normative way to live?
Torah wisdom teaches that the ‘Sodomite Syndrome’ actually has a potentially positive dimension to it.
Sodom symbolizes a strong sense of self, which can be a very good thing. It means having self-sustaining confidence. It means feeling that my life is between me and G-d, period. It means that I’m not intimidated by others’ opinions; comments from the sidelines may be instructive, but they aren't definitive.
My life. My struggle, My growth.
That’s healthy Sodom.
It’s independence as the opposite of dependency; , but not – and this is a critical distinction - independence as self-centeredness. It’s independence that grows into inter-dependence. Once I'm secure in my identity, I need to consider my responsibility to others.
As Hillel taught "If I am not for my myself who will be for me (independent sense of self)
but if I am only for myself what am I (interdependent sense of responsibility to others)."
Independence then interdependence.
"What's mine is mine and what's yours is yours" is only a negative attitude if there's a period at the end of that sentence. If we see each other as mutually exclusive – non interdependent - islands.
But what if there's a comma? What if I say "what's mine is mine and what's yours is yours, AND, since we share a responsibility to better the world, let’s commit some of our rightfully-owned resources and create a better society?
That’s capitalism with a soul.
Sodom redeemed.
Raquel Watson wrote...
I can't tell you how much I like this post. Bringing out the fact that there were positive elements in Sodomite characteristics confirms for me that G-d does not make mistakes even if we become too impatient with our present conditions.
"Everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is granted; the world is judged with goodness, and everything is according to the preponderance of good deeds." (Avot p280)
Many people ask why do bad things happen to good people and then use the challenges they face because of their own free will, as an excuse to try to curse G-d. Job's diatribe comes to mind here.
Freewill is a gift to humanity that has dire consequences. If there were no consequences for freewill, then the mountains would have been given the same gift. The challenge is remaining fully aware of where freewill came from in the first place.
I am also thinking about Lot here as well. When he was spared from the fate of his fellow Sodomite citizens and even told where he should go, he decided by his own freewill to go to the cave. It was not incumbent on the angels, who themselves do not have freewill, to convince him of what was in his best interest. And we know that choosing to go to the cave presented further crucial dilemma for him and his daughters. Not to mention his wife's fate for her disobdience.
His independent thought process compromised the interdependence of his daughters' desires to continue a family line.
What is also interesting about your post is the consequence of this lack of freedom of choice in current Russian society. I read an article about the Russian skin heads. It is my understanding that skin heads are first and foremost unhappy with themselves. Their violent behavior and closed mindedness is a result of their own ignorance which restricts and stumps their growth. If you know better you do better. But the environment has to also be conducive to openness in thinking or else humans will band together and do what they do...hang on to any evidence - especially false evidence which is much easier to come by - to justify their existence. The correlation to Job that I making here is, nothing his friends said to him could convince him that his views were unfounded. How could he or they know that the challenge he was facing had less to do with him and more to do with G-d using him to demonstrate to his angels the limits of human loyalty? Eventually the angel did interject with Job and showed him and them the effects of what he was doing to himself. That cursing G-d for the gift of freewill is futile. That a negative attitude does nothing to improve a situation; in fact it only diminishes good deeds.
I could on...but you get my drift...I like this post.
Ciao~