[Avodah] individualism

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 08:38:03AM -0400, Zvi Lampel via Avodah wrote:
> Rabbi Berel Wein z"l with a different nuance:
> https://www.rabbiwein.com/blog/post-2225
...
> [On the other hand.] Too much individuality can lead to narcissism and
> arrogance. No individuality makes life meaningless and without true
> purpose. Judaism always preaches balance in life in order to avoid social,
> intellectual and religious pitfalls.

R Shimon used the mashal of parts of an engine.

Me: Some people are like the spark pluges or pistons, parts of the engine
that everyone knows about, and their importance is obvious.

And yet...

Paraphrasing R Shimon: Even the smallest screw could have a critical job,
without which the engine wouldn't run.

We each get our value from helping the kelal. And each of us are unique,
with a unique role to play, and that role is critical. Whether flashy
or living in obscurity.

But the same is true of Kelal Yisrael as a whole.

Jewish Peoplehood is a balance between Particularism and Universalism. We
have to build a uniquely Jewish People, but that People is a Mamlekhes
Kohanim serving the rest of humanity, an Or laGoyim.

--

RYBS has a different, and kedarko beqodesh, dialectical approach spelled
out in his Tradition article, The Community
<https://traditiononline.org/the-community/>.
He deals with an entirely different paradigm, and a different aspect
of your question.

The antinomy runs as follows (typos mine, Tradition only has page scans):

    Is the individual an independent free entity, who gives up aspects
    of his sovereignty in order to live within a communal framework;
    or is the reverse true: the individual is born into the community
    which, in turn, invests him with certain rights?
...
    And let us give a simple answer: Judaism rejects both alternatives:
    neither theory, per se, is true. But experiences, that of aloneness,
    as well as that of togetherness, are inseparable basic elements of
    the I-awareness.

(Go to the article to see how this plays out in the Torah, starting
with parashas Bereishis.)

Humans form a society because no person can meet their own needs alone.
We need coopertation. So society exists to serve individuals.

But it is equally true that a person's calling includes serving society.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Life is a stage and we are the actors,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   but only some of us have the script.
Author: Widen Your Tent                  - Rav Menachem Nissel
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF