I arrived in South Africa this week for my sisters wedding. I just got back from a beautiful trip to the Pillansberg National Park where my kids saw Giraffes, Zebras, Elephants, Rhinos and Lions for the first time in their lives.
While on board the fifteen hour plane ride, I found myself thinking how intriguing it is that when one decides to board an airplane, one practically entrusts one’s life to the hands of a stranger. No background checks on the pilot, no queries regarding his reputation, and yet the passage is fraught with potential dangers and disasters. Luggage all packed, passports safely stowed, we board the plane with blind trust.
Yet when one undergoes a surgical procedure one will not so much as enter the hospital without having completed extensive research. After all, who would allow an amateur to knife him and then operate on his insides? Furthermore, even after merely receiving a negative diagnosis we seek a second opinion!
The answer to the puzzle is brilliant in its simplicity. We have no problem boarding a plane with a layman precisely because he boards with us. Since he entrusts his own life at the same time that we entrust ours, our fates are intermingled. But a surgeon risks nothing when he operates on the patient, and so we must establish his credibility.
“Ve’asu li mikdash veshachanti betocham” this week’s parsha commands us. “Make for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them.” Chassidus teaches that every person on this earth has his own personal mission to accomplish. Generally, this amounts to infusing the world with extra goodness and kindness by permeating physicality with spirituality. By so doing we build G-d the sanctuary He so craves. Let none of us think that he is independent from his fellow and thus free from his obligation. We are all in it together!