Lo Levad — Not Alone — Jewish Solidarity
Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh — all Israel is responsible for one another — is the foundational principle of Jewish communal solidarity that has sustained the Jewish people through centuries of adversity.
Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh ('all Israel is responsible for one another' — Babylonian Talmud, Shevu'ot 39a) is the foundational principle of Jewish communal solidarity. The word 'arev' (responsible) also means 'guarantor' — each Jew is a guarantor for every other Jew's obligations and wellbeing. This principle has practical legal implications: one may delay one's own mitzvah to help another fulfill theirs; one is obligated to warn another Jew away from sin; and communal responsibility extends to the poor, the sick, and the spiritually vulnerable. The history of Jewish communal organizations — from the ancient gaba'im (collectors for the poor) to modern day federations and welfare organizations — embodies this principle institutionally. After the Holocaust, this principle took on new urgency: 'Never again' is not merely a political statement but a theological commitment rooted in arevut — the mutual responsibility that makes the Jewish people a genuine community rather than merely an ethnic category.
All Israel is responsible for one another.
The principle 'Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh' — all Israel are guarantors for one another — is stated in the Talmud (Shevuot 39a). From it flows the rule (Rosh Hashanah 29a) that one who has already fulfilled a mitzvah may still recite its blessing to discharge the obligation for another, and the custom of confessing sins in the plural — 'Ashamnu, we have been guilty' — even for wrongs one did not personally commit.
Talmud Bavli
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- What Judaism says about community
All Israel is responsible for one another. Taken literally, it makes another person's failure partly your problem.
- What Judaism says about grief
"All Israel is responsible for one another" — arev also means guarantor. This is the obligation on the other nine: communities gather three times daily partly so that someone in mourning always finds a quorum already waiting.