Shabbat Thoughts- Ducks in a row

  

Complete Pesakh Guide!

Today I learned something that you already know. Our days never go as planned. We may have schedules arranged and errands in mind but something comes along and throws a monkey wrench into the works. "The best laid plans of mice and men” comes to mind.

        This morning I lost my temper. I told myself it was because a homeless person dropped by shul seeking assistance.  I was frustrated because my fulfillment of the mitzvah of caring for someone in distress put me in conflict with my daily schedule.  He needed food, transportation and support; all the things that we take for granted as we typically travel from point A to point B. In his daily sojourn, he performs manual labor so that he might find food and occasional shelter. Today, a stranger with no family members able to help him, entered Ahavas  Chesed and became part of our shared responsibility.  (My thanks go out to those who support the discretionary fund.)

       If only I and all of us could fix every situation of homelessness and of despair, but we cannot. That's why I lost my temper. Deep down it was not that I was unable to return phone calls or to start preparing for Shabbat. Deep down it was the frustration that I am nearly powerless to remedy a situation which should not exist. Each of us has a role in this world –to bring justice into our society. Consider the role that we have in touching someone else; the role you play in touching someone's life and how powerful you may be and, yet, how limited we all are.
       This week’s Torah reading is Metzora. In the narrow sense Metzora struggles with the desire of welcoming home its own citizens even as the entire nation fears individuals who have been living on the periphery. Bluntly speaking, we all wrestle with the moral need of welcoming everyone versus the practical, but unfair, daily reality of setting boundaries.

       God guided our ancestors in this confused and frightening experience by directing the worship leaders to be out among the people. Religious leaders bore the responsibility, the opportunity and the privilege of encouraging people both afflicted and healthy to come together. Kohanim stepped forward to strip away the uncertainty we experience when we see someone who does not ‘fit in’. In Torah parlance we are taught to embrace the purity within the impure.

       3,000 years ago a particular protocol was performed so that those who were formerly unwelcome and who lived on the outskirts were made whole. It was the act of taking time, pausing, stepping away from the ordinary routine and reaching out in actual human contact that made all the difference.

       While the purification ceremony of slaughtering birds is of a bygone era, the Hebrew principles of support of others and of attending to the wholeness and holiness of each individual still withstand the test of time. It is the act of coming in contact with someone forlorn and responding to someone in desperation in our community which purifies us in this modern world.

        To hear the voice of the dejected as we busily run through the hours of our schedule transforms us all into Kohanim (religious leaders) with the capacity to purify others. Torah, the word of God has much to teach me.  I still have much to learn.

Shabbat  Shalom. Rabbi Steve Silberman

·       * Painlessly feed the hungry. As you clean out your pantry or cupboard of nearly expired crackers or cereal because Passover is approaching, feed the hungry. Take your non-perishables to any GOODWILL and tell them it is for the FEEDING THE GULFCOAST (old name is Bay Area Food Bank).

·     **   Guitar Shabbat, featuring Yehudah on the Bima, Friday April 15, 6:00-7:00p.m. Oneg to follow! Join us in song!