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Some More Wonderful Charity Stories

rabbifink — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:10:36 +0000

You may (or may not) recall a post I wrote before Rosh Hashanah about a selfless act of charity that was witnessed by a congregant at Pacific Jewish Center. You should read that post: A Heartwarming Story of Charity

In the last few days, we have been preparing for Pesach. Of course that means multiple visits to the local Kosher markets. My wife and I both saw some similar examples of charity over the last few days.

While I was at Western Kosher I saw an obviously poor, elderly woman take her full shopping cart to the register. I then saw a chasidic man who was obviously not related to her and seemingly a complete stranger to her, pay for her entire order. It was not a small amount and I wanted to share his generosity with you.

My wife was at La Brea Market and the person ahead of her wanted to pay her bill. (LBM allows customers to set up credit accounts.) The cashier looked up the account and told her her balance was zero. The customer said “that’s impossible, my husband just reminded me to pay the account before Pesach”. The cashier told her “Well someone paid it. Your balance is zero.”.

These are acts that we need to publicize. These are acts of Jews who get it. These are Jews whom we are all proud to call our brothers and our sisters.

This Pesach don’t get caught up in the size of matzah, the flavor of marror, the crumbs behind the couch and forget the basics.

This Pesach, remember those who are needy. This Pesach lend a hand and help someone less fortunate feel a little bit more freedom by alleviating the stress of their bills. This Pesach let us unite and hopefully through that we will merit a new personal and national redemption.

A Heartwarming Story of Charity

rabbifink — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:18:32 +0000

Living among Christmas Celebrators for almost my entire life, I have picked up on a notion of the “Holiday Spirit” that ushers in the Holidays of Christmas and New Year’s. Folks are generally more friendly and generous under the “guise” of Holiday Spirit.

Seeing as Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) is a mere 9 days away, if we were Christian and the New Year was 9 days away, we would be knee-deep in the “Holiday Spirit”. A congregant of mine told me an anecdote that would fit neatly in the “Holiday Spirit” if we had an equivalent.

This fellow was shopping at the local butcher (Western Kosher) and he noticed an orthodox Jewish woman had stacked her yogurt on top of her chicken. Now, most orthodox Jews don’t think twice about that kind of move, but there are some people who are new to religious Judaism who prefer to keep their milk and meat products separate in their shopping carts. (No, there is no reason to do this, it just happens that fellow in the story does separate his meat and milk in his shopping cart.) So the fellow thinks about saying something to the nice lady but thought it was a silly thing to bring to her attention because he realized that there is nothing wrong with stacking cold yogurt in a package on top on cold chicken in a package.

By now, she had caught his attention and he noticed that she was holding a list with at least 8 or 9 items. Her overhears that woman say to the manager “Please put $1000 in the Schwartz* account. $1000 in the Goldberg account. $1000 in the Cohen account.” and so she went for a few minutes, quite simply crediting at least 8 or 9 families with $1000 out of her own pocket. This fellow was witnessing a true act of charity. Charity given in the most respectful way with no begging, handouts or embarrassment. An estimated $10,000 went to the less fortunate of Los Angeles last week from this woman alone.

That is a universal Holiday Spirit.

*names changed (duh)

I Am So Proud

rabbifink — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:48:39 +0000

Last year, there were a large number of public incidents that shed a negative light on Jews in general and particularly on Orthodox Jews. These events were not representitive of the average Jewish person, yet their notoriety put them front and center in the media.

It seems that the Earthquake in Haiti has marked a reversal of negative media coverage into more positive media coverage in response to more positive actions by Jewish people.

I noted last week that although the Jewish connection with Haiti is slim, there has been no shortage of Jewish efforts to aid the beleaguered people of Haiti.

It did not end with financial support. CNN has been reporting that the Israeli relief efforts were the quickest to respond and efforts were in full swing before any other country was set up. Israel was the first country with a field hospital in Haiti, Additionaly, the Israeli relief efforts have been reported as effective and efficient by CNN and others.

You can see video below of CNN’s coverage.

I am also proud to report that my uncle made the news with his personal work on behalf of Haiti.

Vosizneias is reporting that Rabbi Ronald Greenwald (Uncle Ronnie, to me) is spearheading a drive in many Monsey NY private Jewish schools (Yeshivas) to collect food and supplies to be delivered to Haiti. This comes on the heels of an unrelated visit to Haiti 6 weeks prior in which he was inspired to help the impoverished nation. Greenwald promised the members of the the Haitian community that he would meet with them and accompany them on a delegation to Washington if needed. That meeting was scheduled for January 19.

Uncle Ronnie is no stranger to projects of this nature. He has spent his entire adult life working on behalf of Jewish and non-Jewish causes. Those who know him or know of him are not surprised by this news. The only thing surprising is that some people think it is “news”. This is a typical anecdote in his accomplished life and we wish him more opportunities and more success for many years to come.

CNN Videos:

Jewish Relief Efforts For Haiti Earthquake Victims

rabbifink — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:29:43 +0000

In the wake of the tragedy in Haiti I write this post.

This post comes on the heels of my last post which quoted David Brooks and his admiration for the accopmlishments of the Jews. And now, we have an oppurtunity to show our stripes.

Haiti is not a very Jewish place. It is not frequented by business travelers or vacationers very often. Haiti never had a strong Jewish community. But in time of tragedy the Jewish community has a knack for stepping up to the plate and helping in the ways that we can.

The Talmud says that a hallmark characteristic of the Jewish people is that they are Rachmanim, compassionate. The response to the earthquake is an example of that compassion. There are a number of Jewish organizations that are raising funds for the relief effort. It would seem to me that to close our eyes to this opportunity would be a violent breach of rachmanus, compassionate action.

I am not saying you need to pledge your life savings or more than you normally give to poor people for charity. But it just seems to me that to ignore the plight of the thousands of people who are in desperate need is so callous that it would not befit a nation of Rachmanim.

Just think about the victims, look at the pictures, watch the video and you cannot help but feel compassion for these enfortunate victims.

Please do not hesitate to donate and help, even if it a small amount.

The idea is not so much that your miniscule donation with help alleviate this epic disaster. Rather it is inconceivable that a warm blooded, human being could not help those who are in such dire straights. If your gut is telling you that helping is the right thing to do, then follow your gut.

If your gut isn’t telling you to help, well, I find that hard to believe…

Please contribute to the Jewish Federations of North America and they will distribute the funds for relief efforts of the victims.

Authentic Judaism and Authentic Charity

rabbifink — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:32:10 +0000

This post is really two Public Service Announcements.

Please read both and if you are able to help in any way possible, it is much appreciated.

One great thing about blogging is the opportunity to connect with other people for the sake of an important cause. Today, I present you with two important causes.

First, there is a blogger who writes vitriolic, hate laced blog posts against anyone with whom he disagrees. He does so under the guise of Authentic Judaism. He makes no real arguments, just yells loudly at those he views as a threat (read: anyone who thinks differently than he). Apparently, he thinks that God spoke to him directly and gave him Torah and nobody else. A number of bloggers are trying to snatch the Google search result ranking from his blog.

I am here to help.

More importantly, DovBear is looking for some kind souls to help a family in desperate financial need. The economic downturn has claimed some more victims and from what I understand, their situation is dire. It is really easy to help, Just click here and click donate in the upper right hand sidebar and donate just a little money. Type in the amount you can give and indicate it is for #famliyneedsdough. If you can give just a few dollars it would make a tremendous difference to this family. Every penny donated will be given directly to the needy family.

I appreciate any relief you can provide.

Misleading Charity Campaign

rabbifink — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:15:21 +0000

A Religious charity in Israel has embarked on what I and many others feel to be a misleadeing charity campaign.

Promises 0f safety from danger, special perks and privileges and out of context quotes from great Rabbis permeate the campaign.

I wrote all ab0ut in on DovBear. You can check it out by clicking below.

What Is Going On With Kupat Ha’ir?

Men (Learning) at Work

rabbifink — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:54:18 +0000

This blog post is about men learning at work. By learning, I mean studying Torah.

I taught a class today at Teichman Enterprises.

It was a really great experience and I was inspired and I want to share my feelings with you.

If you are looking for the Australian musical artists known as Men at Work who sing that great song called “Down Under” (the one the “Piamentas” ripped off and sing to the words “Asher Bara”) click here for Men at Work.

If you don’t know what I am talking about watch these two videos…

Okay – got that? Now Watch this:

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fig44jXBpj4&feature">http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fig44jXBpj4&feature</a>

But I digress.

Back to our previously scheduled blog post.

I heard from my Rebbe that he is often approached by men who work long hours and feel as if they are spiritually drowning because they have such limited time to work on their spirituality.

His advice was that once a day, while at work we should contemplate on the reasons we are working. We are working to support a family, a wife, children, to provide the opportunity for them to grow Jewishly, so that we can send our children to expensive Jewish schools and so we can give charity, and so that we can experience a beautiful Shabbos together and if we are able to focus on that for just a moment it can make a tremendous difference in our work. Literally transforming our mundane job into a spiritual activity.

Truly, this is a beautiful idea.

Today I witnessed and participated in an equal if not better solution.

Teichman Enterprises has a weekly Torah class in their office. A catered lunch and a Rabbi teaching Torah is sure to insert some spirituality into a mundane work week. It is the perfect way to integrate the spiritual with the more mundane.

I was privileged to teach the class today and I was inspired. The attendees were attentive, interested and thoughtful.

It is impressive that so many people were willing to take time off from work to come hear words of Torah.

Notable among the attendees was Meish Wilson from Venice and the Pacific Jewish Center.

Today we learned about the special silver trumpets that were blasted before many moments in Jewish life. We learned about the root of sin and the path to recovery from sin as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I hope the attendees did as well.

(One correction, I mention R’ Yehuda HaLevi in the class, in fact it was R’ Shlomo Alkabetz, my error and I apologize.)

Today was a big day for iPhone owners and before the class we talked about the marvels of the iPhone over lunch. Thanks to the magic of the iPhone (and an app called iTalk) you can listen to the class on your computer right now!

Click below to listen.

Enjoy the class. (35 minutes)