One of the most important figures in Judaism is the Great Rabbi Hillel, who once remarked, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?" This quote has been posted on the top of my blog since the beginning, however, it has not yet been fully addressed. After several months of blogging on the topic of altruism and self-interest, I have come to the conclusion that this quote is, as I suspected, an appropriate maxim by which to live life.
It is difficult to definitively conclude that any action is purely altruistic because the mere act of helping others causes most people to derive some sense of personal satisfaction. Thus, defining actions as altruistic or self-interested is more arbitrary than it is useful, and more theoretical than it is practical. It is more important to ask the question of for what purpose we dedicate our lives and how we define our relationships with others than how we act.
If we believe Hillel, then the answer I to strike a balance. "If I am not for myself, who am I?" Thi seems to suggest that if we do not have some sense of self-interest, then we lose our identities. In my English class this year, we discussed at length the idea of storytelling, and the idea was proposed in one discussion that if we do not as a society defend our own narrative, then someone else will fill that void. This is not only unadvisable, but dangerous. Allowing one group of people to define another's collective narrative leaves the door open for hatred and acts of violence, for instance, the narrative of the Jews that Hitler told in the 1930s that culminated in the Holocaust.
"But if I am only for myself," Hillel says, "who am I?" Our human identity is not only defined by how we defend our own narrative, but how we interact with others. Compassion, and an understanding of the other, are important components of what it means to be a human being.
And most importantly, "If not now, when?" Striking a balance between living our lives for ourselves and for others is difficult, but it is urgent. As one of my teachers says, "do something good for yourself and for others; start with others." For some people, being altruistic is a prerequisite for helping themselves, and for others, self-care is a prerequisite for being able to look out for others. Either way results in the same end--the same balance. That is a deeply personal choice, but if the end result is the same, either is permissible.
