A Soulful Journey

  "All who expend effort for the sake of the needs of the community, it is as if they have immersed themselves into Torah."  - Talmud Yerushalmi Berakhot Our obligation extends to study, observance the answering the call of those in need.

  "Two are better than one, for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow."  -Ecclesiastes 49:19 Help someone today. Allow yourself to be helped.

"As one hand washes the other, so one person must help another."  - Leon of Modena, 1600 "If you want to pull a friend out of the mire, do not hesitate to get a  little dirty."  - Baal Shem Tov

When I was young I was taught being Jewish meant: You don’t cross picket lines, You work for peace, You fight for social justice, You never forget the suffering of your people as a link to the suffering of others.”  - Sabrina Virgo While  this is true  Judaism  so much more vast than this.

As a daily warrior on route 95 from the Virginia suburbs, I've witnessed many random acts of kindness delivered with local flair. On a recent morning, I noticed a commuter standing in the pouring rain beside his disabled vehicle, helplessly watching the procession of cars pass him by. Suddenly one small car, already packed with four passengers, swerved close to the drenched man. Down rolled the window and from that emerged a well-used yet functional umbrella. This still stranded but grateful man excepted the gift, waved his thanks, and the car continued on its way.  - Diann Tennant Wohlleb We can always do something to help someone.

A merchant once came to Rabbi Moses, the Rabbi of Pressberg, known for his magnum opus as the Chatam Sofer, and asked the rabbi’s blessing for his business.   Rabbi Moses said to him: ‘I heard that your brother is very poor man and you aren’t helping him.’   The merchant justified himself:   ‘My business isn’t doing well, and I can not afford to help my brother now.” Rabbi Moses answered him, ‘It states in the Torah: “I too have heard the sighs of the children of Israel whom Egypt is enslaving.”    We know that the word, too , is meant to be inclusive.   What does it include here? This teaches us that even though all the Jews were enslaved, and that each one sighed for his own sorrows, nevertheless all heard the sighs of their brothers and felt their distress. It was because of this that God, too, come heard their sighs.”   - Rabbi Menachem HaCohen Heed the cries of the needy.

We are told of the Arizal, by his disciple R. Hayyim Vital, that he was particular in paying his workers exactly on time, without delay. And if he did not have the money with which to pay these wages, he would delay his afternoon prayer ( minhah ) until close to sunset in order to search out a loan with which to make the payment. Only afterwards would he hurriedly  daven minhah . He would explain himself by saying: “How can I pray to the Lord, may He be blessed . . . , when such an important mitzvah is incumbent upon me, and I have not carried it out?”

A story is told of Binyamin HaTzaddik, who was the supervisor of his community’s Tzedakah fund. Once, when there was a shortage of food, a woman came to him and said, “Rabbi, feed me!” He replied, “I swear that there is no more money left in the Tzedakah fund.” She said, “If you do not feed me, a woman and her seven children will die.” So he fed her from his own money.  - Baba Batra 11a If help is needed we are the arms of God, no one else.

On Kol Nidrei night one   of the leading Lithuanian Rabbis demanded that his people come to services in the morning with sums of money.   The worshippers were shocked by his request, but they trusted their Rabbi who was renowned for his piety and wisdom.   On Yom Kippur morning they came to the synagogue and assembled their money.   The Rabbi then explained why he asked them to violate the sanctity of the holiest day of the year.   He had been informed before the Kol Nidrei service that a Jew who was known to be a revolutionary and an atheist had been arrested and had been condemned to death.   He was sentenced to be shot on Yom Kippur afternoon unless a substantial ransom was paid. True story.   But the moral is critical.   It does not matter our opinion of another, when a Jew is in trouble we come to his aid.

Two monks were crossing a bridge.   As they cross they hear a man calling for help in the narrow ravine below.   They want to stop but they must reach the monastery before sunset or they will freeze to death.   The first monk chooses to risk the danger fo the cold in order to help another to safety.   He  climbs down into the ravine, gathers the wounded man up into his arms and makes his way back slowly to the monastery. The second monk goes on ahead, determined to get back safely before sunset. Night comes, and with it, bitter cold. As the first monk nears the monastery, he stumbles over something in the middle of the   road.   To his sorrow, it is his brother who had gone ahead alone and had frozen to death.   In order to save his life he lost it. The compassionate monk, willing to lose his life, was kept warm by the heat exchanged from carrying the stranger in the road.  –Jack Pantelo Life must be lived to...