Check this out, just since October our Tikkun Olam committee has conducted a High Holy Day food drive, hiked at Reinstein Woods, donated warm socks to the Friends of Night People, walked with Run for Their Lives Buffalo, collected dog treats and toys for the SPCA, collected sneakers for Guide Books for the Blind, helped restock the Amherst Little Free Food Pantry, and provided Hospice Spring Bouquets. I couldn’t be prouder of our Tikkun Olam committee and for all of our Shir Shalom community for supporting their many projects. By giving of their hearts, they have made a deep and profound impact on so many lives in Western New York, and in the life of our spiritual community.
This week’s Torah portion Terumah, describes the free-will offerings of ancestors toward the building of the tabernacle. Gold, silver, bronze, fine linen, rams and goat skins, olive oil and incense, and Onyx stones, all given voluntarily from the heart, precious individual gifts meant to benefit God as well as the whole community. So anxious were they to make their contributions, Sforno, the 15th Century Italian Torah commentator, wrote that they did not even wait for the court to make the arrangements, but “ approached Moses personally bringing with them so many contributions that Moses was forced to call a halt to this.”
Terumah means donation and together with the more modern term Tikkun Olam, world repair, form the heart of our Jewish existence, the third leg of the three-legged chair the Talmud tells us the world stands on: on Torah (study), Avodah (worship), and on Gimmilut Chasidim (acts of loving kindness). A big thanks to our co-chairs, Joe and Janeen Morris and the entire Tikkun Olam committee for all their hard work.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex