This lecture uncovers the historical and theological context of the well-known “kol yisrael arevim ze ba-ze” statement. Rather than simply a pithy maxim on the importance of solidarity, we will show that this statement is part of a group of texts which employ financial metaphors to think about the repercussions of sin. Not only Jews but also Christians in late antiquity took very seriously the idea that each and every human action bears great weight and can tilt the heavenly scales toward redemption or oblivion. As a result, these texts demonstrate profound anxiety about the implications of every person’s sin, which is often described in financial terms. The solution to this problem is presented through the metaphor of guarantorship, by which one person’s merits, accumulated through good deeds, can balance the sins of another. The collective community, bound together through the performance of mitzvot, is thus a solution to the challenges of facing divine demands as an individual person.
Dr. Ayelet Hoffmann Libson is an associate professor of Talmud at Bar Ilan University. Previously she taught for five years on the Law faculty of Reichman University and was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She is a graduate of Matan’s Advanced Talmud Institute and Migdal Oz’s halakhah program, and has lectured widely in many batei midrash, including two years at Drisha. She is the author of Law and Self-Knowledge in the Talmud.
