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Jewish World Review April 27, 2001 / 5 Iyar, 5761
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
Every time we open our
checkbooks or wallets to
help the needy, we feel good
about it. But the Torah
requires that we pay attention
not only to how much
we give, but also to how we
give. The biggest merit is
not for the biggest donor;
it's for the one most sensitive
to the dignity of the
recipient.
One community, Frankfurt-am-
Main, found a way of
performing this mitzvah
with the utmost dignity.
When a person would sit
shiva, mourn for the week required by Jewish Law, he would usually lose
a week's income. For the
poor, this was an enormous
hardship. So, when anyone
sat shiva, the communal
charity box would be placed
in his home. The poor were
allowed to take from it whatever
they needed to get
through the week. The well-off would add to it. Nobody
ever knew who gave and
who took. No one was honored
for his donation. And
no one was belittled for his
need.
Adapted from "Words of Wisdom,
Words of Wit," by Shmuel
Himmelstein, with permission
from Mesorah Publications, Ltd.
Effective
Prayer
RUSTY
GEARS
A Chassidic Jew came to his
rebbe, with a question:
"There are times when I'm
just too preoccupied to concentrate
on davening, praying.
Should I daven anyway,
when I know
I won't
have
any
devotion?"
The rebbe answered with a
story: A customer came to a
watchmaker's shop with a
watch that hadn't kept correct
time for six years. "Leave it
here and I'll soon have it
working as good as new," the
watchmaker told him. Behind
him stood another customer
who had a two-year-old watch
in need of repair, but the
watchmaker told him, "Sorry,
it's beyond repair."
"But how could that be?"
asked the man. "The other
man's watch was much
older, yet you said you
could repair it."
"The other
man wound his
watch regularly
throughout the
years," the watchmaker
explained. "Yours hasn't
been wound for two years.
The gears are all rusted and
can't be brought back to life."
The rebbe's message was
clear. Whether it works correctly
or not, the "machinery"
of prayer must be kept
in use if it is to some day do
its optimal job of connecting
us to the Creator.
Inner Excellence
THE GOOD WAY
Rabban Yochanan ben
Zakkai, in Pirkei Avos, tells
his five students to go out
into the world and determine
"which is
the good way
to which man
should cling."
Each was
impressed by a
different trait
which he felt
was the key to
one's ability to
live a religious life. This
is the third of a
five-part series
examining these traits.
Said Rabbi Yose:
A Good Neighbor
Our forefather Abraham
lived in a bad neighborhood,
among idol-worshippers
who ridiculed him. Yet,
amid them, he grew up to be
Abraham, the Creator's faithful
servant. He declared G-d's
presence to a hostile
world, shattered his father's
idols and allowed himself to
be cast into a fiery furnace
rather than retract his beliefs.
Then why,
the Bartenura
asks, is he told by G-d
"Lech lecha" --- GO! LEAVE!
If Abraham achieved
greatness in
this spiritual
swamp, why
did he have to
leave?
The
commentator
answers that
even Abraham
wasn't immune to his environment.
Even neighbors
who rejected him were considered
potentially damaging
to his greatness, simply by
being there in his everyday
life.
The conclusion for ourselves
in our day is obvious.
If even an Abraham had to
separate himself from negative
influences, how much
more so an ordinary Jew?
And if even people who
hated him could sway him,
how much more influential
are those who welcome us
and invite us to adopt their
"pleasant" lifestyles? "Lech
Lecha" teaches us that no
one, not even Abraham, can
reach his potential living in
the wrong environment.
Adapted from "Majesty of Man,"
by Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz,
shlita, with permission from
Mesorah Publications, Ltd.
Nobody
knows
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