Kol Yisrael Arevim: On Collective Teshuvah and IDF Service

A childhood friend told Rav Ari Bar-Shain he had stopped davening and learning, and that he was at peace with it. Rav Ari took the story to his students at Princeton with a hard question: am I responsible for my friend's relationship with Hashem? On this episode of Torat JLIC, host Don Canter sits down with Rav Ari, JLIC co-director at Princeton, to work through it.

Rav Ari lays out three models of collective teshuvah. The Rambam, where Hashem weighs the individual, then the medina, then the world. Rav Kook and Rav Soloveitchik on teshuvah for the norms a community builds, from keeping up with the Joneses to who we put on a pedestal. Finally, the Beit HaLevi on na'aseh v'nishma: we accepted the Torah in the plural, and with it, responsibility for every Jew. He also shares what he told his friend. It's not all or nothing. Take one step at a time.

Rav Ari started his first year as a campus rabbi while serving in Gaza. By the time he reached Princeton, his students had kept the learning going without him, so he found a different role: role model, listening ear, the person who checks in. He recorded this conversation weeks before heading back to miluim for the Chaggim. He also describes a Yom Kippur that a terrorist infiltration upended, and a day spent serving Am Yisrael in a way he never expected.

Kol Yisrael arevim zeh lazeh. Rav Ari lives it on campus and in uniform. The question he leaves you with: who are you responsible for?