Once there was a kingdom referred to by its residents as Paradise. The kingdom had adopted this name not for the beauty of the land or for the natural bounty it provided, but for the way everyone loved and cared for one another. If anyone needed anything, a neighbor always stepped forward and cheerfully volunteered, often without ever being asked. Why were the king’s subjects eager to help each other? Because the king led by example. The wise king knew that the people would only treat each other as well as he treated them.
When the king was old, he knew he would soon need a successor, and he appointed his son to take over. But the prince was not wise or considerate like his father. When people approached him with an issue facing the community, the prince was blind to their needs because he couldn’t see how the problems of the common people affected the royal family. His response was always the same: “It’s not my problem.”
Years later, after the king was long gone, the prince’s attitude had infected the entire kingdom. Few people remembered the town Paradise once was because everyone had become self-centered, focused only on their own problems. The only person who remembered the former paradise of Paradise was the old fisherman, who had lived before the time of the previous king. The old fisherman was fed up with the place Paradise had become under the prince’s rule. So he took his oldest, biggest boat and invited the whole town to a party on the water. The whole kingdom came out to enjoy a party on the fisherman’s enormous boat. Even the prince came.
Everyone was having the time of their lives until the host of the party literally pulled the plug. The old fisherman uncapped a hole in the boat, and the boat began to sink. The people were terrified and outraged, but the fisherman didn’t seem to care. The prince begged him to plug the hole, saying “If you let this boat sink, we’ll all drown!” The fisherman calmly responded, “That’s not my problem. I have plenty of other boats.” The Prince was flabbergasted. “Don’t you understand?” he cried. “A sinking boat affects us all! You’ll drown too!”
Finally the old fisherman’s lesson clicked with the prince. In that moment, the prince understood that other people’s problems could be his own, and the town of Paradise couldn’t continue to thrive unless everyone took responsibility for their actions and for each other. The old fisherman plugged the hole and steered the boat back to shore, as everyone, including the prince, helped by bailing water.
Too often we feel disconnected from those whose job it is to lead us in a positive, forward direction. It can seem like politicians, appointed leaders, and office management don’t always have our best interests at heart. If you were one of the prince’s subjects, how would you have acted in this story? Would you have stepped up to address the problem as the old fisherman did, or would you have continued the downward spiral of ignoring problems because they didn’t directly affect you? This is the lesson seen in this week’s parshah, parshat Ki Tissa, which details the story of the golden calf and the ways in which Moshe, God, and the Israelite nation respond to the situation.
The Israelites are portrayed as children who act out because they feel ignored, scared and frustrated. God and Moshe are like the parents whose children have misbehaved. God calls Moshe up the mountain after He sees what has happened and yells out, “YOUR people that YOU brought out from Egypt are a disgrace.” Moshe responds later to God saying, “YOUR people that YOU brought out of Egypt did this.” Neither Moshe nor God wants to take responsibility for this misbehaving child. Each responds with a “not my problem” answer. God doesn’t want to admit that He has created a people that would behave so rashly, and Moshe doesn’t want to take responsibility for being the leader of a people so distrusting of leadership. We all have the power to realize, just as God, Moshe, and the story’s prince do, that the problems facing the people as individuals affect the entire nation as a whole, leaders and all.
Rabbi Eve Posen 