“You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God;
your tribal chiefs, your elders, and your officers, every man of Israel. Your
young, your wives, and your convert who is within your camps; from the wood
cutters to the water drawers.”
~ Devarim 29:9-10
You stand, this day. This teaches that Moshe gathered
them [every one of the people] before the Holy One, may He be blessed, on the
day he [Moshe] died, to introduce them into the covenant.
~ Rashi on Devarim 29:9
The verse Rashi highlights, in his view, strikes a strong
note of inclusiveness. Rashi’s comment resonates for me in two different very
recent occurances in my life.
This past Friday a colleague in another department at work
called to tell me that she was distressed to learn that I’d begun work to plan
an event, which she would be asked to support, without first consulting her. I
told her that I had consulted with her boss and was under the impression that
he had advised her of this new activity. She was not placated by my
reconstruction of the events. As I thought the matter over, it occurred to me
that I had put this colleague in an uncomfortable spot by leaving her
out of the loop; I had failed to be as inclusive in the decision-making process
as I could have been.
Over the weekend I thought it would be a nice thing to
invite guests for dinner on Sunday night, both to share the abundant leftovers
we had from Shabbos and to help celebrate my daughter’s planned departure, the
next day, for her year in Israel. I asked my wife who we could invite and she
said: “Ask your daughter.” My initial instinct was to recoil at the added
consultation required to set up a social engagement; after all, my wife was the
only opinion I needed to consult for the past 18 years – why change now? But,
of course, she was right. My daughter is now a young woman and it is a good
measure of decency to include her view when making social plans.
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