EXOD269 … the Torah is acquired by forty-eight things … [37] [by being one who] bears the yoke with his fellow. Pirkei Avot, Perek VI, mishnah 6. The authentic Torah scholar cannot be a "loner." If colleagues in his community are involved in the chores of Jewish life – – regulating kashruth, finding support for a home for the aged, building a new mikvah, helping the local day-school – – he cannot, in good faith, remain apart. At this vital "dance of life" he cannot say, "I will sit this one out." Whatever the demands on his time, to attend meetings, go to banquets, make visits, the scholar of Torah must be ready to "bear the yoke with his fellow." It is a striking image that our text uses. If you see someone in trouble or pain, you may feel a pang of pity and realize you ought to help him. Then you feel sympathy; but you still stand outside the situation and regard the other objectively. When you "bear a yoke with your fellow," you see and feel everything he does; you share his burden, sense his pain and suffering, because you have made his plight your own. So you must help him. This is the profound human kinship that grows in the world of Torah. It is one of the basic reasons why the world of Torah has endured since its beginnings. Our Sages taught (says the Talmud): At a time when the people Israel are immersed in suffering, if one of them separates himself, the two ministering angels who accompany a person come and place their hands on his head, and they say, "Let this one who drew away from the community not ever see the solace of the community." And again it was taught: At the time when the people Israel are immersed in suffering, let a man not say, "I will go home and eat and drink, and my soul will be at peace."… Rather let a person suffer with the community, for so do we find that Moses did… For it is stated, "Moses' hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands." Now, did Moses not have one pillow or cushion to sit on? It was only because he said, "Since the Israelites are immersed in suffering, let me suffer with them" [this verse, T.B. Ta'anith 11a].