Communal Responsibility
Halacha places high importance on a community's responsibility to one another. A community is halachically obligated to fund communal needs. These needs include security needs; a community is required to build a wall and gates. These needs also include religous needs; a community is required to build a synagogue and ensure that is well stocked with a sefer Torah and seforim.
Rationales behind Communal Responsibility
Extent of Communal Responsibility
A big component of the halachic discussion around how far communal responsibility extends comes from a crucial Tshuva of the Maharik. This Tshuva of the Maharik is quoted by the Rema and by many generations of Achronim, thereby making it a really focal point for the discussion of communal responsibility.The Maharik argued that in a case where there is a risk to the Jewish people of a region, all Jewish communities are required to pitch in. We will structure the article around the Tshuva and the response of other poskim in order to examine how poskim viewed the question.
Background of Maharik's Ruling
In the late 1470s- a major blood libel broke out in Regensburg. The city of Regensburg imprisoned seventeen leading members of the Jewish community. After repeated negotiations the city of Regensburg agreed to release the imprisoned Jews in exchange for the payment of an immense sum; 23,000 florins. The Jewish community of Regensburg asked all the other communities of Germany to assist in paying the expense. The Rabbonim of Germany in turn asked the Maharik, Rav Yosef Colon (1420-1480), over whether they were obligated to pay. It is to these rabbonim that the Maharik directed his ruling.
Ruling of the Maharik
The Maharik noted that were the blood libel not to be stopped, it would lead to the persecution of other Jewish communities in Germany. The Maharik said that any community that would potentially be a target of the blood libel was obligated to contribute to stop the libel from spreading in Regensburg.
In the Maharik's exact worlds
It is according to my humble opinion that all those communities (the Jewish communities of Germany) which are fit to be considered and almost certainly, that God forbidden, also upon them should pass the poisoned chalice, if this matter is not repaired as much as possible. The law is that they (the other Jewish communities at risk of blood libel) too should bear the burden, for because the safety of the holy community of Regensburg is their safety, and the opposite, the opposite, God forbid.[1]
The Maharik brought proof from the Gemara in Bava Metzia 108a- the gemara there how to assess the expenses for an urban gutter. A gutter must be regularly cleaned in order to allow outflow. The Gemara says that if the downriver community cleans the gutter- the city's residents must contribute to the downriver community's expenses. If the gutter is clogged, the downriver community is first at risk of potential flooding. If the gutter is overfilled, next at risk are the residents of the city. Rashi explains that since the city is saved from potential danger of flooding by the gutter cleaning, it is liable to contribute to the expenses of gutter cleaning.
The Maharik extends this analogy to his case. If the dangerous situation in Regensburg is not resolved, the catastrophic wave of anti-Semitism will engulf all of Germany.
The Maharik notes a potential challenge to his comparison- he is comparing the physical phenonomon of flooding with the social phenomenon of anti-semitism. It is among the laws of physics that if too much rain occurs the gutter will flood. There is a certain and predictable danger of flooding. In contrast, the wave of persecution is not inanimate- but the product of human decisions and thereby more uncertain.
But here the danger is not so certain, that one can doubt and say maybe this false libel and slander won't spread in other places.[2]
In response, the Maharik responds with two arguments. The first is a chillingly prophetic analysis on the spread of antisemitism.
We see that, because of our many sins, all of their plots on us are to overpower and ambush us, and Hashem in his great mercy will save us from their hands- every situation like this (of antisemitism) is a certain danger.[3]
The Maharik argues that the current expression of antisemitism in Regensburg is not merely a one-of, but rather an expression of deeper antisemitism that lurks behind the seemingly calm exterior of German society.
The Maharik goes on to say, that even were antisemitism to be
