Posts Tagged ‘Abraham’
Haiti – Giving tzedokoh funds to disaster relief
1. Amidst the appalling disaster and devastation of the Haiti earthquake, it is at least good to know that the reaction of so many people around the world has been “what can we do to help?”.
2. And it is also good to know that the Jewish community is not backward in coming forward. Israel had its team of medics standing by ready to join the relief efforts within hours of the news hitting the media. And Jews around the world are joining others in contributing funds to the relief campaigns.
3. The issue of using tzedokoh funds for humanitarian disaster relief is really rather simple, but I discuss it here because I have received reports of at least one person who should know better – being responsible for children’s spiritual development – talking nonsense.
4. There are two main talmudic principles involved.
5. First, the allocation of limited resources is that “the poor of your city come before the poor of other places”. That applies at all levels, so my family come first, my local community comes next, and so on outwards.
6. The rabbis record that we give to non-Jewish charities as well as to Jewish charities because of “darchei sholom” – the ways of peace – and there is considerable discussion as to what precisely this means.
7. Commonsense makes it clear that the first principle does not and could not mean “do not give a penny to another city until your city has everything it could possibly wish for”, because on that basis nobody would ever get beyond their own immediate family in giving tzedokoh. What it does mean is that in deciding how to divide whatever I am giving to charitable purposes overall, I give relatively more to those for whom I am more responsible by virtue of proximity and expectation, and less to those for whom I am less responsible.
8. As to the second principle, what is required by darchei sholom has changed in the last few decades in a number of ways. When we lived in small isolated villages in Poland, our responsibilities were limited by our knowledge. Famines in Africa were thought of, if at all, as remote events affecting people of whom we knew little or nothing. Nowadays, almost every Jew in this country sees the world news in a newspaper of some kind or on the television or hears it on the radio. Almost every Jew will at some point last week have seen the faces of people wounded by the earthquake, and most will have heard their cries.
9. Whether one sees the principle of darchei sholom as being primarily about our community’s international reputation or about our own self-respect and spiritual direction, it is simply impossible that the descendants of our father Abraham could see the faces of the injured and hear the cries of the suffering and not be moved to wish – almost to need – to be associated in some small way in the efforts to relieve their suffering.
10. And we can rest assured that when we give money to the disaster relief funds we are following the example of sensitivity set by the gedolei Torah over the years – the “Tzaddik in Our Time” Reb Aryeh Levine, for example, gave money to African famine relief: although immersed in the Old City with very limited opportunity for finding out about events in the wider world, the cries of the famine-stricken somehow found their way to his ears with the inevitable result.
11. Put another way, the application of the principles of “your city first” and “darchei sholom” has been affected by the shrinking of the world: my brother in Africa is no longer a remote concept, it is an actual face that I have seen. Individuals will make their own decisions about the allocation of their own resources. Some may prefer not to give their basic ma’aser tithes to humanitarian disasters of this kind, but to add to their ma’aser money for this purpose. Whatever each person’s individual decision, we can feel closest to our father Abraham at moments like this when we are following his lead in serving God by caring for mankind.
Why aren’t poppies more popular?
1. Sensitivity is the key Jewish value. This week’s Torah reading finds Abraham – who discovered Judaism – exploring with God how to maximise the opportunities for even the most wicked and greedy of all cultures, the connurbation of Sodom and Gemorrah, to escape total destruction. And it finds him building a religious philosophy based on the concept of welcoming guests and visitors from all corners of the cultural globe, and ministering to the needs of each with a unique sensitivity.
2. So presumably the orthodox Jewish community will be alert for ways of feeling and showing sensitivity to others. Sensitivity to the feelings of those who fought, or whose families fought, to preserve a malchus shel chesed – a free and democratic society – where every religion and culture could receive respect and could cherish its own culture and values alongside those of its host society? Sensitivity to the grief of those who every year mourn those who lost their lives in the battle for this country’s freedom. And sensitivity to the desire of a free nation to mark its feelings of the senselessness and wickedness of the lust and ambition that soaked the fields of Europe twice in the blood of those whose lives should have been dedicated to something better; the blood-soaked fields of the World War One trenches, whose blood-red poppies were gathered as the guns fell silent in spontaneous tribute to those who fell.
3. The ranks of the orthodox community should be ablaze with poppies between now and Remembrance Day. It is a rare opportunity to share a cultural and non-religious symbol with all those who live around us, men and women of all religions or of no religion. There are still a few days left to buy our poppies and show Abraham’s sensitivity to those around us – let’s get buying.
Happy Big Bang Day
1. It is very exciting that scientists have managed today to begin a challenging and long-awaited experiment into the nature of matter. Here are a few random thoughts generated in my mind by this morning’s launch of the protons.
2. First, it is worth saying again that there is no conflict between religious belief and scientific experiment. Indeed, the reverse is the case. The psalmist urges us to consider the magnitude and wonder of God’s work of creation, something that we can do more and more effectively the more science reveals to us about it. The Chofetz Chayim explains that the more we appreciate the nature of the creation, the more we can perceive the magnitude of its intended purpose. The founder of our religion, Abraham, came to his revolutionary belief in a single God by examining the nature of the universe, albeit that he had only his own senses to use to conduct the examination.
3. Secondly, there appears to be a possibility that when this morning’s experiment is continued to the collision phase the resultant explosion will destroy the world. Mildly troubling, but much less so to a religious person than to a secular scientist. The rabbis advise us to live each day and each moment as if it were our last – because it always may be. Easier said than done, of course: but at any rate the addition of one more possible reason why my life may end at any moment adds little or nothing to the importance of aiming to be ready at all times to give an account of my life.
4. Thirdly, the experiment demonstrates both the futility and the value of science. Scientists hoping to be given the meaning of life by colliding a couple of protons are likely to be disappointed: nothing that science has yet achieved (evolutionary theories included) has been successful in discovering, nor is there reason to expect that it will be successful about discovering, anything about the “why” of the world as distinct from the “how”. A search for the “why” by flailing about in the universe perpetrating random acts of molecular violence is likely to be futile. But application of increased knowledge of the “how” (evolutionary theories included) to advance our understanding of how we can develop and improve the world, in a partnership with God, to the welfare and benefit of everyone in it, is always of the utmost value from a religious perspective.
The Sceptic Blog 