Shared Responsibility

Courtesy iStockphoto

As soon as it’s Motz’ei Shabbat (Jerusalem time), they started to arrive. Submissions for the upcoming Haveil Havalim (the Jewish blog carnival), sent by eager bloggers, fill my mail box.

I thought I wasn’t signed up to host until the week beginning June 5th?

Sure enough, a quick glance at the schedule reveals that though I am not scheduled to host until the 5th, no one else volunteered to host this week’s edition.

?וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי — If I am only for myself, what am I?

It is not my responsibility to host this week. But since the links are arriving in my inbox, I could just go ahead and host this week and again next week. After all, a volunteer project depends on people volunteering.

.אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי — If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

In other words, no one else is going to protect my time. In fact, unless I set boundaries, others will be more than happy to take my “free” time from me.

?וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי — If not now, when?

Though hosting the blog carnival two weeks in a row would allow for its publication this week and next week, I truly did not have the time to do it this past week. At least, I didn’t have the time to do it well. I take my commitment to host very seriously. I block out time to read not only the submitted blog posts but others from around the Jewish blogosphere that might be a good addition to the other links.

I host every five to six weeks. And the other volunteers host on a regular basis as well. Which means that the majority of the folks who participate in the blog carnival are not taking a turn.

So if you are looking for this week’s edition of Haveil Havalim, there isn’t one. Any posts that were submitted have gone to the Great Trash Bin in the atmosphere. Be sure to check back next week for what promises, already, to be a great edition.