GEN977 The principle of individual responsibility is as basic to Judaism as it was to other cultures in the ancient Near East. See Yehezkel Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel (New York: Schocken, 1972), 392-33. … what is at stake is the deep understanding of the scope of responsibility we bear if we take seriously our roles as parents, neighbors, townspeople, citizens, and children of the covenant. Judicially, only the criminal is responsible for his crime.  But, implies the Torah, we are also our brother’s keeper. We share collective responsibility for the moral and spiritual health of society.   “All Israelites,” said the sages, “Are responsible for one another” Shevuot 39a. Legal responsibility is one thing, and relatively easy to define. But moral responsibility is something altogether larger, if necessarily more vague. “Let a person not say, “I have not sinned, and if someone else commits a sin, that is a matter between him and God.” This is contrary to the Torah,” writes Rambam in Sefer HaMitzvot, positive command 205. This is particularly so when it comes to the relationship between parents and children. Abraham was chosen, says the Torah, solely so that “He will instruct his children and his household after him that they may keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just” [this verse].   The duty of parents to teach their children is fundamental to Judaism. It appears in both the first two paragraphs of the Shema, as well as the various paragraphs cited in the “Four Sons” section of the Haggadah. Rambam counts as one of the gravest of all sins—so serious that God does not give us an opportunity to repent— “one who sees his son falling into bad ways and does not stop him.” The reason, he says, is that “since his son is under his authority, had he stopped him the son would have a desisted.” Therefore it is accounted to the father as if he had actively caused his son to sin.  Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuva 4:1. The reference is of course to a son under the age of thirteen.  SACKS 308-9