Today I was walking to Four Barrel to get my morning coffee, as I opened the door and smelled the fresh aroma of environmentally sustainable coffee beans, I saw the bad seed. A man who was clearly in no rush, finished his to-go latte and threw the remnants into the trash. The reason this struck me was because not only was there a compost bin and a recycling bin next to him but this was a coffee shop that promoted sustainability! The man who was in no hurry before, rushed out of the coffee shop like he had just peed himself. As I reached into the trash can and pulled out the latte cup, I had an epiphany. Why was it that this coffee shop promoted sustainability yet the cashiers were doing nothing about this? I was trying to trying to figure out as to why there was nothing being done, but instead my mind wandered and I remembered learning the story of Pilegesh B' Giva and immediately I was drawing parallels to what had happened in Four Barrel today. Pilegesh B' Giva is one of the most horrific stories in the Torah. The story of Gibeah, is one that shocks most. A Levite man set out to Gibeah with his concubine. When they reach Gibeah an Ephraimite man asks him where they are headed (19:17). The Ephraimite offers his home to the Levite and his concubine (19:20). This story takes place when there was no king in Israel (19:1). That being stated, people had no boundaries and there was chaos everywhere. The levite and his concubine settled into the home of the Ephraimite and that evening townsmen showed up at his door trying to take the Levite and rape him (19:23). The Levite offered up his concubine and the text clearly states, "they knew her and they molested her all night long until the morning" (19:25). The men brought the concubine back in the morning where she had been beaten so badly she was lying dead on the Ephraimite's door step (19:26). The Levite took the dead concubine and cut her into twelve pieces and sent her off to each tribe of Israel (19:29). The story gets progressively worse and there is a civil war within the tribes and chaos strikes even harder (20:38). Although the man who threw his cup into the trash was not nearly as bad of an act as gang raping a concubine and then cutting her up into twelve pieces and shipping her off, this story represents what can happen if there is no democracy, in this case no king. The people had no boundaries and there was no sense of authority that drove these tribes to do good and abide by any sort of law. The first line in the story is, "And it was that in those days there was no king in Israel" (19:1). Already, the readers know that there will be corruption because the first line acts as a type of justification, not justifying the acts of these people but showing that these acts were done by people when there was no rule. It doesn't make any of these actions better but if there is no laws or king to tell people how to behave people will feel entitled to do whatever they please, having it be gang raping or not throwing your cup in the correct bin. There was no one telling people it was unnexceptable to raid peoples homes and gang rape them and there was no one to tell this man he couldn't put his cup in the trash and although there was a bin for recycling he wasn't motivated to do the just action simply because he didn't have to. So whats the common ground in both these stories? There was no authority telling these people from right and wrong. Although we could sit here and assume everyone is as righteous as we are, the truth is there are people who won't do the right thing if they don't have to. So I ask myself, how can I go about fixing this problem? Is it as simple as hiring a recycling monitor or appointing a king? I believe the best way to reinforce good amongst people is not only having some authority monitoring the people but also to educate the community as well. We need to educate people about recycling and the benefits that come with it. We can't just have the cashiers monitor every person who goes to the trash to throw their cup away just like Israel couldn't of appointed a king and stopped every citizen from monarchy and destruction, there needs to be education as well as democracy. There is a law about drunk driving but unfortunately that doesn't stop people from getting into vehicles under the influence and jeopardizing their lives and the lives of others. Having law enforcers or kings doesn't stop people from committing violence or careless acts. We need to teach people the harsh effects of not recycling and show them the difference they can make just by putting their plastic latte cup into the recycling rather than the trash. There should of been a king appointed in the land of Israel not only to run Israel but set a good model onto the citizens and educate them about violence and steer the Israelites into the right paths so that they would be less likely to commit acts of destruction. I'm not saying it's as easy as putting someone in charge and having them educate the people but it's a start and a step into the right direction. The government can only educate and enforce so much, it's up to the people to decide what they are going to do with the information presented to them. Although there will still be people who are "bad seeds" if we educate them and reinforce positive behavior we will know that it wasn't our fault and we tried our best to prevent it. So the next time you see someone doing something unethical or violent don't be the person who just sits there and says "oh well", be the person who knows they tried to the best of their ability to stop it.
Thats all for now, Shabbat Shalom!
-Dilara
