A Soulful Journey

Caring for others in the Jewish tradition is mutli-faceted.  It is not as simple as writing  check when we feel like it.  It is much more complex. One story tells of a poor yeshiva bachur (student) who studied all day long and depended on the generosity of the own to feed him  This particular yeshiva bachur was sitting at the table of one of the town's matriarchs.  He sat before a plate of noodle soup.  Bending over, he put his ear to the bowl. "What are you doing?" inquired the woman. "Shh.  I am listening to the noodles talking." "What are they saying?" "One noodle is calling to the other, 'Where are you?'"   A cute story but like all good stories, it contains an element of truth.  Those are dependent on us should not have to resort to pleading or begging.  We only have things to share.  We must not be stingy with what God has placed in our care.  So how dd we know when and what to give the poor?  This is spelled out by ...

  "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.

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”  - Elie Wiesel

  "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.

Rabbi Hanina Ben Dosa watched all the people going up to Jerusalem, taking with them fine gifts and offerings for the Temple. How he longed to go with them and bring something wonderful for God. Alas, Rabbi Hanina was very poor. He had nothing he could offer. He wandered sadly in the desert field. Suddenly he saw an interesting stone on the ground. It was very large and beautiful. What a splendid idea, thought Rabbi Hanina. I will take this stone to the holy Temple as my gift to God. Rabbi Hanina ran home and got his tools. He cut the stone and polished it until its colors shone beautifully. At last, it was fit to create the holy Temple. But how would he ever get it there? He looked for someone to help. He would need five strong men to carry it and they would have to be paid but he knew he barely had five gold coins as his whole life’s savings. Suddenly five men appeared as if out of nowhere. “We will help you carry the stone,” they said. You can give us each one gold coin.” That was e...

Two indigents stood before a judge.  The judge, addressing the first, asked, "What kind of work do you do?" He answered, "Nothing." The judge turning to the second, asked the same question, "What do you do?" He answered, "I help him." We are tasked with a sacred duty while alive, to leave the world in better condition than we found it.   What did you do today?

" My mother tells the story that they used to have gaslights and you out a quarter in a meter in the apartment and the gas went on for a period of time.  You lit the gas and the kids would do their homework and study by that.  They used to have a next-door neighbor who had a lot of children and they were very poor.  They would always ask if this little boy, Yankel, could come in and lie on the floor next to my mother and study by the gaslights.  The told me this many years ago when he got elected.  He was Jacob Javits."  - Fred Schwartz, NY furrier The good you do today may affect the whole world in a time yet to come.  You may never know.   Go out and do some good today.

"Abraham was unable to save Ishmael. Isaac was unable to save Esau."  - Talmud, Sanhedrin It is up to us to do our best to encourage everyone to do teshuvah, to help them turn their lives around.  Yet, the Torah tells that sometimes we are incapable of doing so.

Prayer:  When Jacob was about to face Esau after many years of estrangement, the midrash ( Tanhuma Buber, Vayishlah  6) tells us that he did three things — and the first was to pray. When our biblical ancestors were faced with a crisis  ויצעקו אל ה ’, they cried out to God. When Jews are faced with a health crisis, they recite Psalms such as chapters 121 and 130 and the  Mee Sheberakh  prayer for those who are ill.  Jewish Unity :  We are told in the Talmud ( Shevuot  39a)  כל ישראל ערבין זה בזה  — “All Jews are responsible for one another”. This has always been the strength of the Jewish people, how much the more so in times of crisis.  We are all in the same boat :  “Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught: It can be compared to people who were in a boat and one of them took a drill and began to drill under his seat. His fellow passengers said to him: ‘why are you doing this!’ He said to them: ‘What do you care? Am I not drilling...

"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

There is the belief among rabbis that by performing mitzvot, one would be actively participating in Tikkun Olam (crafting a better world). With this in mind, it is difficult for any person to do all the 613 mitzvot all of the time.  Therefore many rabbis specialized in mitzvot and made this their forte.  There is the passage in the Torah which states that you must help your neighbor's afflicted animal.  Taking this portion a rabbi long ago, used to travel around and look for animals in distress, just to help them.

Rabbi Hanina once saw the people of his town bringing a variety of offerings and gifts to Jerusalem. He said, “Everyone is taking gifts and offerings up to Jerusalem and I and taking nothing.”  So Rabbi Hanina went to the outskirts of town and found a beautiful stone.  He cut it, shaped it, and polished it so I was truly a sight to behold. He then declared, “I hereby promise to take this up to Jerusalem.” But the stone was too heavy for him to carry on his own. So he tried to find workers to carry it. He found five workers. He asked, “Will you take this stone up to Jerusalem?”   They answered, “If you will pay us, we will take it up to Jerusalem for you.”  When he discovered that he had no money with him, the workers left.  God, observing the predicament in which Rabbi Hanina found himself, arranged for five angels in human form to appear when they appeared, Hanina asked, “Will you take the stone for me?”  They responded,...

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.

Whatever I want for myself,
 I want the same for that other person.
  And whatever I do not want for myself or my friends,
 I do not want for that other person.
 This is the meaning of the verse, “ And you shall love the other person as yourself.”   (Leviticus 19:18)  ,   Maimonides, Sefer HaMitzvot