That A Man Can Be As Poor As Me (Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia - "Black Peter"

          Our sixteen-year-old daughter has been in Israel for the past 5 weeks. She is scheduled to return early next week. Because of cell phones and WhatsApp, we have communicated with her quite frequently, she has spoken to us, video phoned us, and texted us. She has sent us pictures of nearly everywhere she has traveled throughout Israel. She has been to Israel on numerous occasions so she is rarely surprised by what she sees. She spent last Shabbat in Jerusalem. When we spoke to her, she commented that she is always overwhelmed by the poverty she sees, the number of beggars, and certainly the numerous women begging, pleading, and asking for money in order get their food for Shabbat. Our daughter is astute enough to notice the shopping bags full of change that the women outside the Kotel (Western Wall) have while they continue to ask for more. She appreciates the irony that when she gave a few shekels to a woman, the woman incredulously returned the shekels to our daughter. However, our daughter explained that she felt a tinge dismay; that something seemed so wrong. Here she was at the Judaism’s most holy site, and economic poverty surrounded this source of spiritual light and holiness. It seemed, to her, counterintuitive and she wondered how these two images co-existed.

This week's Parsha is Re'eh. Moshe continues his discourse. He has already explained the Mitzvot, and he continues to do that. Moshe has alluded to the blessings of life if B'nai Yisroel follows God's commandments. He has and continues to allude to the curses that will befall B'nai Yisroel if they violate the most important commandment-idolatry. "See I present before you today a blessing and a curse" (Deut.11:26). V'haklalah Im Lo Tishm'u el Mitzvot Adonai Eloheichem V'sartem Min Ha'Derech Asher Anochi M'taveh Etchem Ha'yom La'lechet Acharei Elohim Acheirim Asher Lo Y'Datem-"And the curse: if you do not hearken to the commandments of the Lord your God, and you stray from the path that I command you today, to follow gods of others, that you did know." (Deut. 11:28) Moshe presents B'nai Yisroel with two pictures, a world when B'nai Yisroel lives up to its covenant with God and one in which they don't.  He reminds Bnai Yisroel of the sanctity of Eretz Yisroel (the Land of Israel), the consumption of foods that are consecrated to the Kohanim and he warns Bnai Yisroel to avoid imitating the Rituals and Rites of the Egyptians and the Canaanites. Moshe reminds Bnai Yisroel to be careful of false prophets, avoiding non-kosher foods, not living in wayward cities, forgiving loans after seven years, caring for the less fortunate and celebrating the three pilgrimage festivals of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot.

During the course of his warning Bnai Yisroel of the dangers of not following the Torah and exhorting them to observe the Torah, Moshe makes a simple if not stunning admission regarding the reality of our physical existence. Ki Lo Yechdal Evyon Mikerev Ha'Aretz -For destitute people will not cease to exist within the Land, therefore I command you saying, 'You shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your poor, and to your destitute in your land" (Deut 15:11). The Torah may be many things, but spiritually unrealistic is not one of them. Judaism recognizes human reality and weakness as well as the importance of empathy. Focusing upon the word “brother”, Rashi (the great 11^th Century French commentator) explains that if someone fails to empathize with his brother’s poverty; there may come a point when he joins his brother in poverty. For Rashi, there is little that separates the impoverished brother and the well-off brother, and as a result, the well-off brother must be able to see himself in the impoverished brother.

We know there will always be those less fortunate.  Whether "less fortunate" is a physical, emotional, spiritual, economic, or intellectual not everyone is as fortunate as the next person. We learn that tzuris is part of life and it transcends gender, age, and color and nationality. Moshe recognizes that in our zeal to make the world better, in our zeal to do Tikkun Olam (fix the world) we may grow dismayed and even beaten down because there is so much suffering.  Moshe reminds us that we are not obligated to do the impossible and eliminate the condition of poverty. Instead, our job is to contribute to the solution, by extending oneself to one who is less fortunate. Our sixteen year old understood the message.  The Kotel and what it symbolizes is an ideal, a utopia perhaps. The poverty that seemingly surrounds the Kotel manifest in all those beggars reminds the rest of us that we need to continually strive towards that ideal, towards that utopia. Rather than be overwhelmed our daughter realized that these two disparate images were empowered her to engage in acts of Chesed (Kindness) and Tzedaka (Charity) throughout her life.

Peace

Rav Yitz