We are all responsible for every other member of the nation, regardless of class or social stature.
We read in Parashat Beha'alotekha of the tragic story of the mit'onenim, those among Benei Yisrael who voiced complaints to Moshe as the nation embarked from Sinai towards the Land of Israel. God punished the people with a heavenly fire that "consumed the edge of the camp" (11:1). According to one view in the Sifrei, the fire affected specifically the geirim, the converts who had joined Benei Yisrael and traveled at the edge of the camp.
The Meshekh Chokhma, commenting on this verse, suggests that this passage in the Sifrei may perhaps shed light on another Biblical narrative: Benei Yisrael's battle with Amalek. Moshe, in describing Amalek's attack on Benei Yisrael, tells that Amalek waged war against "kol ha-necheshalim acharekha" – "all those who lagged behind you" (Devarim 25:18). In light of the Sifrei's comment that the converts traveled at the edge of the Israelite camp, we might conclude that it was specifically against the converts that Amalek launched its attack. If so, the Meshekh Chokhma adds, then we can explain a different Midrashic passage – the famous remark of the Mekhilta that Yitro made his decision to join Benei Yisrael specifically upon hearing of their war against Amalek. What inspired Yitro to join Benei Yisrael, perhaps, was their loyalty and sense of responsibility towards the converts, as manifest in the war against Amalek. When the converts came under attack at the edge of the camp, the nation immediately mobilized an army and came to their defense. Benei Yisrael treated the converts as full-fledged citizens, as brothers, as any other members of the nation. Yitro was moved by this concern for the converts, and as a result became interested in becoming one himself.
This perspective on the battle against Amalek brings to mind a different war fought by Benei Yisrael, many years later, against the nation of Amon. Shortly after Shaul's appointment as the first king of Benei Yisrael, Nachash, king of Amon, threatens the bordering region of Yaveish Gilad. The Navi emphasizes that Shaul, upon hearing the news of the Amonite threat, responds with anger (Shemuel I 11:6). He acts not only with conviction, but with rage, tearing apart a pair of cattle and sending the pieces throughout Israel, threatening to tear apart the cattle of whoever does not join the military effort against Amon. Why did Shaul react with such fury, and why did he find it necessary to issue this threat against the people?
The answer, perhaps, emerges from the response of the people of Yaveish Gilad to Nachash's threat. Nachash mockingly offered a truce in exchange for the removal of the right eye of every resident of Yaveish Gilad, and the people replied, "Give us seven days so that we may send messengers throughout the territory of Israel, and if there is none to save us, we will come out to you [to surrender]" (Shemuel I 11:3). Yaveish Gilad was a remote, peripheral, sparsely-populated area in the Trans-Jordanian region, situated near the border with Amon. They understandably anticipated that the larger, "mainland" tribes would not respond to their cry for help. Shaul's anger was perhaps ignited not by Nachash, but by the indifference of his own people to the plight of Yaveish Gilad, to the "edge of the camp." Shaul succeeded in teaching the people that they are all responsible for every other member of the nation, regardless of class or social stature. Benei Yisrael's uniqueness, as Yitro recognized, lay particularly in this quality, of loyalty and devotion to even the "lower" elements among the population. Shaul therefore demanded that all the tribes contribute to the effort to save Yaveish Gilad, to demonstrate the responsibility they all bear towards even the most remote and peripheral Israelite communities.
Courtesy of Yeshivat Har ETzion - www.etzion.org.il