"It won't work unless you close your eyes!" the director chided. "How am I supposed to believe that I won't fall flat on my face as I'm being passed back and forth around this 'trust circle'?" "Look around, we're in this together. We're all working together to reach a common goal in this production. If you can't trust the other actors on stage with you, this show is gonna fall flat on its face." "But…" "We're all scared…of falling on our face, of being rejected; but if there's someone there to catch us when we fall, before we hit the floor, we can have the guts to get up on stage each day and share our story. Now, close your eyes and fall."
This trust circle is a popular trust building exercise employed by directors trying to break the ice between members of a new cast. It's not easy to close your eyes, cross your arms, and fall…but once you do it and you make it through, a lot of trust has developed in the group without anyone speaking a word.
In the parsha we find a similar exercise for new home owners. "If you build a new house, you shall make a fence for your roof, so that you will not place blood in your house if one who falls shall fall from it."(Deut. 22:8) Apparently roof parties were popular back in the day. Rashi comments that the "fall guy" here is deserving of punishment for whatever it was that he did. However, I'm required to build a fence so that this punishment doesn't come about through me. Sounds a bit selfish. I'm just worrying about my interests, if he falls from someone else's roof, hey, that's not my problem…as long as I'm not liable. But it is my problem.
When we build a new home, we're required to leave a section of one wall unfinished as a remembrance that the "ultimate house" the Temple, is still unfinished, still waiting to be built. That Temple remains only in blueprint form as long as our roofs go unfenced. The Temple at the turn of the first century was destroyed because of "sinat chinam," baseless hatred. People were falling on their faces all over the place with no one to catch them. The fence G-d commands us to build is not encouragement to "look out for Number One." It's a reminder that if we don't look out for our brothers and sisters, we'll be leaving a gaping hole in the trust circle that Jews embody for each other.
I want to close my eyes and leap from the highest of heights, I want to feel the rush of the wind beneath me, and I want to land in the strongest of arms. Now, close your eyes and fall with me.