In this episode the journey we have been on together over this series takes an unexpected twist. It turns out that Avot is not only about who we become.

It is also about leadership. And it changes what that means for each of us in a way that makes it relevant for how we live every day.

One of the most famous lines in Pirkei Avot is Hillel's question: if I am only for myself, what am I? Many of us think of who we are as something fixed. A fixed size, a fixed list of people who count as ours. Hillel's question doesn't accept that. It asks how far the boundary of "I" can actually move.

Drawing on the Rambam, Rav Shimon Shkop, and the opening chapters of Pirkei Avot, we begin to uncover a new concept, and it is one that changes the meaning of personal development itself.

Perhaps becoming the person you're meant to be was never an inward journey alone.

KEY QUESTIONS

·  When you say "I," who are you actually talking about? Your body? Your family? Your people? Something wider still?

·  If you are only for yourself, what are you?

·  Is your sense of identity fixed, or is it something that can actually grow?

·  Can personal growth ever be complete?

·  What does it mean if the highest form of Kiddush Hashem required no words at all?

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