This Ritual Life Archive

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Here you will find out about ways to enhance your holiday experience, to celebrate or mark a meaningful life cycle event, and to deepen your experience of the everyday. Our authors are especially interested in hearing your responses to what they have written. So after reading, visit the Ritual Life discussion forum where you can join in conversation with CLAL faculty and other readers.

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Volunteering

The children of Israel stood paralyzed, a great sea before them and a mighty army at their backs. It took a brave volunteer, Nachshon the chief of the tribe of Judah, to wade into the water and show them that the sea would split, just as God and Moses promised. "For that reason Judah was worthy to be made the ruling power in Israel." (Sotah 37a) Volunteering often feels like that: caught between family and work responsibilities on the one side, and the seemingly endless needs of the less fortunate on the other side, it's not easy to take the plunge.

MEDITATION

A woman walked along a beach filled with starfish, stranded by the low tide. As she walked, she would stoop down, pick one up at random, and throw it back into the ocean. A man came upon her and asked, "Why do you bother to throw some back when there were so many more?-What difference does it make? She picked up another starfish, threw it back into the ocean, and said, "It makes a difference to that one."

Our sages teach the lesson this way: "You are not required to complete the work, but you are not free to evade it either." (Pirke Avot 2:21)

RITUAL

When you are about to start any kind of volunteer activity-ladling out food at a soup kitchen, organizing a fundraising drive for a neighborhood school, joining the board of a non-profit organization-announce it to your friends and family, just as you would a new job or professional opportunity. Don't use the occasion to boast about your self-lessness. Use it to reinforce your commitment to the activity, and to be a Nachshon-a role model-for others standing on the seashore, who, with the slightest nudge, might join you.

BLESSING

(On becoming God's partner in the daunting work ahead:)

Barukh atah malbish arumim, zokef kefufim, ha'notein layaef koach.

"Blessed are You Who clothes the naked, Who raises up those who are bowed down, and Who gives strength to the weary."

(from the Morning Blessings)

(On being able to share our prosperity with others:)

Barukh atah she'asah kol tzarki.

"Blessed are You Who provides me all that I need."

(from the Morning Blessings)

TEACHING

"You are to follow the ways of the Holy One. God clothed the naked, so should you clothe the naked. The Holy One visited the sick, so should you visit the sick. The Holy One buried the dead, so should you bury the dead. The Holy One comforted mourners, so should you comfort mourners." (Adapted from BT Sotah 14a)

Streshin, a typical shtetl (Jewish village)in Belarus, supported at least 15 charitable organizations. There was a Khevre Kedisha, or burial society. The Shomrim society would provide guards to stay with the body from death to burial. The Khevre T'hilim society came together to read Psalms and raise money for charitable projects. The G'miles Khesed Society made interest-free loans to those in need. The women's Lekhem Evyeynim Society collected extra challah loaves on Thursday mornings and distributed them to needy Jews in time for the Sabbath. The Bikur Kholim Society would raise money for families to travel to the city for medical care. They would also harvest ice from the Dnieper every winter and store it in an underground cellar; the rest of the year they delivered ice to those suffering from fever. There was a Jewish Book Society that raised money for the lending library and invited lecturers from nearby cities.

At its height in the 1880s, Streshin's Jewish population numbered 552.

"One who executes charity and justice is regarded as though one had filled all the world with kindness." (Sukkah 49b)

Hayom katzar, v'hamlakha m'rubah The day is short, the task is great.

(CLAL faculty)

CLAL's National Jewish Resource Center develops and publishes rituals that help to bridge the gap between our contemporary lives and the ancient wisdom of the Jewish tradition.