GEN497 Do not separate yourself from the community.  Pirkei Avot II:5  For long periods of his life the human being is quite helpless, unable to survive alone. In infancy, in sickness, in old age, man is dependent on others and on the community. Moreover, culture and civilization as we know it would be impossible if we lived as hermits, in total isolation and total self-reliance. Through the organization of society, specialization and division of labor, each of us can enjoy the fruits of the cooperative work of myriads of his fellows. If for a brief episode during his prime, a man has illusions of self-sufficiency, he would do well to remember that in the very near future he will need the community, the organization, the synagogue that perhaps he now ignores.  And always, whether he knows it or not, he benefits indispensably from the activities and contributions of countless others.  Furthermore, the large communities of mankind build and maintain an invaluable reservoir, a repository of knowledge, wisdom and spiritual values only because society preserves and transmits the precious traditions of past generations.  This is especially true of historic Jewry with its age-old Oral Torah.  One of mankind’s enormous early sins is expressed in Cain’s terse question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” [this verse] With hostility and suspicion the human being would reject the common brotherhood of man, or at least question it with asperity.  Hillel’s answer is a gentle affirmation: “Do not separate yourself from the community.” Share your life with your fellow humans.  SINAI1 146-7