Spirit and Story Archive

Welcome to Spirit and Story, where you will find the latest thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on the contours of our contemporary spiritual journeys. Every other week you will find something new and (hopefully) engaging here!

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Taking a Trip? Become a Mitzvah Messenger

By Jennifer Krause

Now is the time of year when winter-weary New Yorkers make pilgrimage to white, sandy, sun-strewn beaches. They nestle in these tropical incubators, hoping to soak up enough warmth to regenerate the growth of their wind-stunted spirits. They see a world untouched by sleet, snow, or temperatures that creep appallingly into the single digits. After a few short days, they can almost see spring and summer glistening in the distance, a vision of the world-to-come.

Soon I will make a winter pilgrimage of my own. But I will not be headed toward St. Bart's, Mustique, Curacao, or even to the holy land otherwise known as Miami Beach. My destination is the other Holy Land. Just a few hours after Shabbat ends, my trip to Israel will begin.

Over the past several days, I have mentioned my trip to others - friends, colleagues, students. Almost every mention has produced a tiny wad of dollar bills accompanied by the phrase "n'siyah tovah - have a good trip." One friend who knew I was preparing to go to Israel even sent me a note in the mail with a single dollar bill folded inside. Some of the bills are crumpled, some are crisp; some are folded lengthwise, others are folded in half. The many faces of George, whether wallet-worn or mint-fresh, are all part of the same ritual. It isn't that people are concerned that I won't have enough cash for the journey. And they aren't just telling me to have a good trip. Every time they reach for a dollar and press it into my hand, they are reminding me that I'm not taking a trip - I'm making one.

Giving a person a dollar before a journey - any journey, not only one to Israel - turns a traveler into a shaliach mitzvah - a mitzvah messenger. The first time I encountered this idea was as a little girl. Before any trip my grandma would present me with eighteen cents neatly wrapped in tin foil (something she does to this day). The eighteen cents was for chai - for life. Many years later, when I went to live in Israel, I learned that Israelis send people off on a journey by saying "aseh chayim!" Literally, "Make life!" I always knew that the eighteen-cent package was somehow meant to keep me safe on my journey, but I didn't realize until much later that giving my journey purpose was itself the protection. The purpose: to "make life" - to enrich it, deepen it, expand it with a mitzvah.

It is so easy to take off on a trip with disposable camera, traveler's checks, passport, and one of those inflatable neck things for the plane efficiently in hand. These items say, "I am going on a trip. I am a traveler, loaded down with the things that travelers need." But when you feel that dollar in your pocket purposely kept separate from the rest of your cash, or that shiny little eighteen-cent package sends the metal detector screaming, you know that you are a shaliach mitzvah. You know that you are going somewhere, not only to take home interesting tschotchkes and album-worthy pictures, but to leave something of yourself, to give something. It is like the half-shekel contribution for the census in the Book of Exodus, the special portion we read in anticipation of Pesach. It reminds us quite literally that in order to count, we have to make a contribution.

In Moses' early days as a leader, he asks God how he is to respond to the Israelites when they inevitably ask, "So just who is it that is sending you with these messages and instructions?" God says to Moses, "Tell them that 'Ehyeh (I Will Be)' sent me to you." Reminding another person that he/she has the potential to be a mitzvah messenger wherever he/she goes is a reminder that every journey - from the seemingly mundane to the overtly extraordinary - should ignite the "Ehyeh - the What Might Be" in us all. Our contributions are our limitless possibilities realized through a variety of mitzvot both inherited and yet to be imagined; they are our calling card no matter where we go. Because while we all know that a dollar is not really enough to buy much of anything, it is somehow more than enough to remind us that we can be anything.

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