And so, for the foreseeable future, I ask each of you to lend a helping hand. Just outside the Maas Chapel and the DeRoy Sanctuary, we have placed bins for the following items, which are so needed by so many people:
* Food – canned goods and non perishable items, which will be taken to the food pantries and soup kitchens of our community, many of them with their stores now running low.
* Toiletries – along with diapers, baby formula and basic essentials for hygiene.
* Warm Clothing – for the bitter winter cold, including coats, scarves, gloves, sweaters, shoes, and so many other things that we take for granted.
I ask you to take the time to gather all of these items, and bring them to Temple every time you come for services, or a meeting or a program.
I ask you further, to consider making your family simchas; a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, or a wedding, a time when you make a statement about your caring by transforming your centerpieces into gifts of food for the hungry.
This is just the beginning of our efforts. We can and must do more. And we derive our inspiration in part from Scripture.
In the book of Esther, after King Ahasuerus has banished his queen Vashti, a young Jewish woman, Esther becomes the new queen. After Esther’s uncle Mordecai refuses to bow down to the Prime Minister Haman, incurring his fury and leading him to declare that all of the Jews in the kingdom must die on a single day. Mordecai tells Esther that she must go to the king, unbidden, and plead for her people’s lives. And Mordecai says to Esther, “Perhaps you were sent here for a time such as this.”
And perhaps we were sent here, each of us, for a time such as this.
A time such as this, when almost 50 million people suffer in poverty
A time such as this, when over 40 million people are without health insurance
A time such as this, when hunger inflicts such misery on so many millions
A time such as this, when people, men and women, and children, citizens of America, live on the streets in despair
A time such as this, when so many are out of work and out of hope
A time such as this when our very way of life is at stake in the United States of America.
We were sent here for a time such as this. I believe that with all of my heart. And now is the time for action. Now is the time to mobilize in support of our new president and reach out to him with hands and hearts outstretched, with the prayer that one day those hands will touch in blessing. For make no mistake, the hands that help are as least as holy as the lips that pray.
I ask for your help. May God bless you for your caring.
Rabbi Daniel B. Syme
