Rav Chaim Palaggi, in his sefer Moed L’Kol Chai ( chapter 4, section 10) says that now is the time to speak about the praises of the Jewish people. On the holiday of Pesach the Jewish people give a lot of charity. He says, “I want to count it, in order to arouse the merit of the holy nation, the Jewish people.“ He goes on to list ten things that were going on in Turkey in his times, starting with Purim and the many causes that they donated to. He ends with the words,
“Fortunate are they, and fortunate is their portion. Blessed is God who created us to bring Him honor. Baruch Hu Baruch Shemo. Blessed is He, and Blessed is His name, that chooses the Jewish people with love, because of how special we truly are.
As we always say, Mi K’Amcha Yisrael/who is like Yisrael!
In every generation, we have to do this. We can look back at our good deeds and recall our Matanot L’Evyonim, our Ukraine drives, our Lev Chana drive, Maot Hitim, and the many, many, different projects and initiatives that our community has taken on.
Just this week David Beyda, the president- elect of SBH, son of the famous Mr. Joe Beyda a’h, invited me to take a tour of Sephardic Bikur Holim, the Hesed organization that is the pride of our community.
There were many division heads and directors seated around a large conference table, representing various divisions of SBH, such as client services (that take care of each client), school/student benefits (with all types of programs worth millions of dollars), job placement, geriatric programs, a mental health clinic, a mental health referral service, a medical referral service, a volunteer unit, a fertility service, and a food pantry…. Each person is in charge of a different division that could be an organization of its own.
This is what we have to do. We have to make lists and say that we are involved in Hessed. Mi K’Amcha Yisrael.
It brought to mind an Agudah convention that I attended many years ago. Agudah is another wonderful organization that has many different divisions of many acts of kindness.
A speaker at the convention mentioned a famous secular parable:
A group of blind men heard that there was a strange animal called an elephant that had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form. Out of curiosity, they decided to inspect it by touch.
“Hey, the elephant is a pillar,” said the first man who touched his leg.
“Oh, no! it is like a rope,” said the second man who touched the tail.
“Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree,” said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.
“It is like a big fan” said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.
“It is like a huge wall,” said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.
“It is like a solid pipe,” Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant…:
Sometimes, when you look at an organization, or you look at a people, you can touch and you can feel but you can’t possibly imagine that all of this is one being! And that is the Jewish people. There are so many hessed organizations, and so many great things that are done. There is an organization called Bonei Olam, that recently celebrated their 10,000th birth. Rabbi Bochner, the founder, who was not zoche to children of his own, has helped thousands of couples start their own families. This week they announced their first baby born after a successful uterus transplant!
This brings new hope to many childless couples.
These are great Hessed organizations.
What really touched me at SBH was when the chief executive officer, Nathan Krasnovsky explained why he got involved. He said that his father passed away when he was young, and he was raised by a single mother. Then, when he was in eighth grade, his mother had a massive heart attack. He was alone in the house when he got the call. They said they didn’t think that she would make it, and they asked him to make the decision of whether his mother should go to a closer or further hospital. He was all alone while his mother was in ICU for a very long time. He worked in restaurants to cover the rent, and he felt like he was drowning without anyone there to help him. He eventually went on to attend the Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalayim, and became a lawyer. After everything that he had accomplished, he decided that he wanted to give back. He didn’t want there to be another child like himself, or another single mom like his mother, alone without support.
It was very moving, and that is what the Jewish people are all about.
These are the kinds of things that we should talk about before Pesach- not just about how much money people spend on Passover trips. Let’s talk about how much money we spend on Hessed, and all the good things that we do, in order to arouse God’s love for the Jewish people.
Mi K’Amcha Yisrael!
Have a wonderful day.