DEUT1622 Our very humanness means we sometimes behave badly. Our teachers cared mightily that we live up to the high standards set by Jewish law and communal ideals. They couldn't easily rationalize how little good most of us actually do and how easily and regularly we fall into sin. Yet despite their unblinking look at how we actually behave, the rabbis remained optimistic, knowing that the Torah's positive influence upon our moral choices cannot be disputed: [this verse]. They attributed our chronic sinning to the powerful nature of the evil urge, a foe so wily and untiring that it can never be permanently defeated. Nonetheless, the Torah's teaching is plain: with God's help we can ally ourselves with God's goodness and rule humanity's evil streak. One of our sages actually pictured us as schizoid, with two yetzarim evenly split in their ability to dictate our actions: "As R. Levi taught: There are six parts of the body that serve a person; three are under his control and three are not. The eyes, the ears, and the nose are not under a person's control; he sees what he doesn't want to see, hears what he doesn't want to hear, and smells what he doesn't want to smell. The mouth, the hand, and the foot are under a person's control. If he wants he can use his mouth to study Torah or speak gossip and blasphemy. He can use his hand to give charity or steal and kill. He can use his feet to walk to synagogue or houses of study, or to brothels" (Gen. R. 67.3).

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DEUT1735 Our Yiddish ancestors [said] with their usual matter-of-fact directness: "Even to die one needs help; no corpse ever buried himself" (Yiddish proverb). And that means help from the entire community; going to a funeral of someone you don't know is as true a mitzvah as burying a family member. When few attend a funeral, we feel bad; when many come, it assuages our sense of loss and our intimations of our own mortality. And that attitude has created our new interest in hospice care. Respectful, loving attention in the face of the ultimate void that is death shows that gemilut hasadim is more than duty, but an extended, felt kindness in which, once again, we emulate our Creator: "And God buried Moses in the valley" [this verse].

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