Each man over his brother – איש באחיו
A group of gentile tourists went on a tour in the forests of the jungle, and to their bad luck, they got lost in the heart of the jungle. Immediately upon realizing that they lost their way, they agreed among themselves that they would remain together as a group until they found the way out of the endless dark jungle. They continued on their way, slowly, slowly they learned how to cope in the place, they learned to recognize the types of plants, and which are edible, and they also learned to recognize the nature of the animals and how to be careful with them and cope with them.
One of the tourists had a craving for cooked food, it had been a long time since they left on the safari, and he had not had any cooked food since they left. Therefore, he decided to hunt an animal for himself, roast it and eat it. And so he did, he hunted down an animal and began preparing it for roasting, but when the others in the group saw what he did, they warned him that the smell of the roasting meat would likely bring dangerous animals upon them and will tear apart the whole group. But he kept to his own, “I am hungry, and I am cooking it for myself, and whoever does not want does not have to join me!” When they saw that they had no choice, they stood and blocked him so he would not be able to light a fire and do as he wanted.
In our parsha are the klallos – curses – that Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai revealed are all berachos [blessings], but since the whole tochacha [rebuke] was written in this language, it is learned as it is written and spoken. This is what the Torah says, 'וכשלו איש באחיו' – ‘they will stumble, each man over his brother’ (26:37), and Rashi explains the plain meaning of the posuk, ‘when they will run to escape, they will stumble over one another, because they will run I confusion’. But Rashi mentions a Medrash that explains the posuk in a different way, ‘They will stumble, each man over his brother – one stumbles through the sin of the another, for all of Israel are guarantors for one another.’
The statement ‘all of Israel are guarantors for one another’ is double-sided. This says that first and foremost we cannot hide from the actions of even one Jew, since this influences all of us. This also says that not one person can say ‘I am doing this for myself, and it is no one else’s business’, since this is everyone else’s business. This is what the Medrash says, ‘one stumbles through the sin of another’, then we should take responsibility for our actions and pray for our brothers that they should also take responsibility and not cause us to stumble through their actions.
-Tiv HaTorah - Bechukosai
