Vayechi - Group 2

In your group, read the following source out loud and use it to inform your discussion of the guiding questions on the original source sheet. There are additional guiding questions below.

מסכת סנהדרין דף לז :א
מתני' ... שכל המאבד נפש אחת מישראל מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו איבד עולם מלא וכל המקיים נפש אחת מישראל מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו קיים עולם מלא ... שאדם טובע כמה מטבעות בחותם אחד כולן דומין זה לזה ומלך מלכי המלכים הקב"ה טבע כל אדם בחותמו של אדם הראשון ואין אחד מהן דומה לחבירו לפיכך כל אחד ואחד חייב לומר בשבילי נברא
העולם ושמא תאמרו

Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a

Whoever destroys one person from all of Israel, the Torah finds him as guilty as if he has destroyed a whole world. And whoever preserves one life from all of Israel, the Torah finds him as meritorious as if he has preserved a whole world…. A man forms many coins from the same mold. They all resemble one another. The King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, formed every man from the stamp of the first man, yet not one of them resembles his fellow. Therefore, every single person is
obligated to say, “The world was created for my sake.”

http://www.koach.org/documents/studypacketjuly06.pdf

Guiding Questions
What does this reading reveal about Jewish thought regarding connections, (in)separability, relationships, etc., between individual and community?
Does this text value the individual or community more highly?
Does this interpretation change the way you thought about individual and community?

Rachel Eisen