I was Mugged in the Heights
I got mugged in the Heights, and it wasn’t even Mamdani’s fault.
It was an ordinary September morning. As I walked from my Shacharis minyan in Furst to morning seder in Glueck, I walked by a fellow YU student, someone I didn’t know, and greeted him with a “good morning.” He looked me in the eye, gave me a puzzled look and without responding, kept walking.
The Talmud states that “If a person extended his greeting to him and he did not respond, he is called a robber” (Berakhot 6b). So there it was: broad daylight, Amsterdam Avenue, and I had just been robbed by a fellow YU student.
I repeated this same interaction with a few other students I did not know, and their reactions ranged from the same quizzical look — as if astonished that I would say good morning to them — to simply pretending they did not hear me. Eventually, I saw one of my friends, said good morning and finally got a response. After being “robbed” ten times, it was nice to finally get my greeting back.
I kept greeting people over the following days and months, and almost every time, the same thing happened: My friends responded, and strangers didn’t.
Is it that my friends are much nicer than everyone else? Unlikely. I presume if the people who ignored me had been greeted by one of their friends, they would have responded. The problem isn’t that these students are inherently rude; it’s that our norms seem to reserve friendliness for people we already know.
By not responding, whether or not they consciously meant it that way, they reinforced a cultural sentiment that we do not know each other and have no particular reason to change that. They would respond to a friend because they already have a connection, but to a random person? What’s the point? We have nothing to do with each other, and perhaps it is best kept that way.
But what a terrible way to live. Saying good morning with a genuine smile is such a simple way to brighten up someone’s day. It is a short and sweet expression of optimism about the day to come, and an invitation for someone else to share in it. Not because I know you, but simply because I want there to be a little more good in the world.
If hoping for good in the world is too much to ask for, hope for the good of a fellow human being. If a fellow human being is too much to ask for, hope for the good of a fellow Jew. If a fellow Jew is too much to ask for, hope for the good of a fellow YU student. We overlap in so many ways, share so many fundamental beliefs, and dream many of the same dreams. It really shouldn’t be too difficult to hope that another student has a good day.
Don’t treat someone you don’t know as if they have nothing to do with you. We have more in common than we think.
Granted, when they chose to look at me like I was crazy instead of returning the good morning, they kind of had a point. Everyone I’ve asked agrees: Randomly offering a good morning at YU is a little weird. I’ll take the hit and admit I’m crazy. If our campus culture makes greeting strangers unusual, then yes, being the person who starts doing it will feel unusual.
But not responding once I’ve said it? That makes you a robber.
To be fair, I wasn’t really mugged. The comedic value I got when people looked at me like I was crazy probably improved my day more than a response would have. So don’t start returning good morning for my sake; do it for your own.
The message of the aforementioned Gemara is that it is the mindset of a robber to view people as total outsiders. If you feel a connection to a person, how could you harm them by stealing from them? Only by totally detaching yourself from them can you stomach both stealing from them and, on a smaller scale, refusing to return their greeting.
As you walk around YU this year, try to connect a little more. View fellow students not as strangers, but as people with whom you already share a campus, a community and a deeper connection. It won’t take much. Look up, smile and return the greeting.
And have a good morning.
Photo Caption: A large sign on the side of a building that says “Love Your Neighbor”
Photo Credit: Derick McKinney / Unsplash
