בס''ד
Parshat VaYishlah
13 Kislev, 5772
December 9th,
2011
It happened for the first time in 2009. Customers, lined up since 9pm the
night before, literally burst through the Wal-mart’s doors at 5am, and trampled
an employee, Jdimtyai Damour, to death.
This year, a women pepper-sprayed 20 others in the face. Her reason? To clear
a path to the Xbox display. A 63 year
man collapsed in a Target when his heart failed. Shoppers stepped over his
fallen body so they could continue shopping. He later died in the hospital.
Largely in order to deal with these incidents, retail chains started
opening for 24 hours on the Friday after Thanksgiving, meaning that their
employees leave their Thanksgiving tables to go straight to work, or lose their
jobs.
Societies are defined not only by the values they promote, but also by
those they tolerate. The toleration of the culture that Black Friday has
spawned is one of the worst insults we can level at ourselves. What we allow is
the statement, yearly, on our national day of gratitude, that the consumption
of non-essential goods at rock bottom prices far outranks our valuation of
human decency. Don’t believe me? Here’s how we feel about towels.
I have a paperweight that reads, “kol yisrael arevim zeh lazeh” –
all of Israel
is responsible for one another. It’s from the Talmud - a lovely sentiment, just
looking at it.
But the dirty little secret of the phrase is that, in context, it means
that all of Israel
is legally responsible for one another: that is, we bear
culpability for each others actions simply through because part of the same
nation. What our neighbors do reflects upon us.
This is deep wisdom about what it
means to be a nation, about the impossibility of eschewing mutual
responsibility, and it is true here as well. What is allowed to happen on Black
Friday speaks volumes about us all, and is destroying the only truly ecumenical
holiday in this country. It’s time for the end of Black Friday.
Rabbi Perlo,
ReplyDeleteWithout excusing the deplorable behavior that Black Friday seems to create, I think that one needs to look a little closer at the situation and with a little more sympathy. I agree that we are responsible for one another, but I don't feel the same way about towels as the people in the video. I can afford to purchase towels that aren't on sale. Maybe some of the people in the video can't?