Parshat Re’eh 5766

It’s hard to believe that an entire year has passed since Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc in New Orleans and along the Gold Coast of Mississippi. At the time we couldn’t stop watching the news and we shook our heads in dismay as we witnessed the horrible destruction and the human suffering that this hurricane left in its wake.

At the time, the out-pouring of concern and compassion was overwhelming and heart warming. No one had to ask. In communities across the United States charitable donations were made and clothing was collected. The coffers of the Red Cross were filled to overflowing as people of good will reached into their pockets and offered to help. Everyone wanted to know, “What can we do and how can we help?”

Here in Oceanside everyone seemed to get involved. We held a community fair to collect money for the victims of Katrina and every school had its own special relief project. Truck loads of items were shipped off to the south to help those in need. But as with all catastrophes, Katrina slowly slipped from our consciousness as it moved from the front page of the daily news to page twenty and to page thirty. Now, unless you happen to read an occasional report on the aftermath of Katrina, you probably will not hear much about the victims of this devastating hurricane.

I have to wonder how many people are still homeless today one year letter and how many were never able to reconstruct their lives? What happen to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, or the survivors of the Tsunami that devastated Indonesia, for that matter? While we are a generous and warm hearted people who respond with open hands to human suffering, we tend to engage in “front page tzedakah giving.” When the subject of our concern disappears from the front page of the paper it is quickly forgotten. And when another catastrophe takes its place, we move on to the latest cause.

What is our obligation to help those in need who face catastrophes and disasters? Is there an appropriate way to help those in need? And how far does this obligation extend? These are questions we should be asking ourselves as all the time. And it is a subject that is addressed in the Parshah this Shabbat.

Among the many topics in this week’s parshah is tzedakah. In fact we find one of the key passages in the bible on this subject in Parshat Re’eh. We are told, “If there is a needy person among you…in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kinsmen…rather you must open your hand…and give him sufficient for whatever he needs.”

This is a high minded ideal. We learn from this verse that we have an obligation to help those in need. In his Mishneh Torah, Moses Maimonides uses this very verse as a proof text to teach us that, “It is a positive commandment, to give righteously to the needy according to their needs and according to the capacity of the giver...”

Yet when we look at the passage in this week’s Parshah we find a seeming contradiction. Chapter 15 begins, “There shall be no needy among you….since the Lord your God will bless you in the land…” and then it goes on to say, “If, however, there is a needy among you, one of your kinsmen...” Finally, the passage ends by telling us in no uncertain terms, “Ki lo yechdal evyon mikerev haaretz…For there will never cease to be needy in your land which is why I command you, open your hands to the poor and needy kinsmen in your land.”

So which way is it? “There shall be no needy among you,” or “the poor shall never cease to be in your land?” Within a few verses we seem to have a contradiction. How do we reconcile these two verses? I would like to suggest that there are two solutions to this contradiction in chapter 15 of Parshat Re’eh.

First what we find here is an ideal versus a reality. The ideal is that “there will never be poor among you.” God has blessed the land and if we will it, there will always be enough resources to take care of those who are in need. But the reality is, “there will never cease to be needy ones in your land” because things don’t always happen the way they should. There will always be hurricanes and tsunamis, famines and disease in the world.
There will always be people in need because it is the nature of the world that some people are more fortunate than others while others are victims of nature’s and societies vagaries. Parshat Re’eh teaches us that while there will always be need we have the potential to do something about it if we don’t harden our hearts, and if we are willing to open our hands.

But I think there is another lesson to be learned from this seeming contradiction between the two verses in Parshat Re’eh. I’d like to suggest that the first verse, “There shall be no needy among you,” refers to front page tzedakah giving, while the second verse, “the poor shall never cease to be need ones in your land,” refers to long range tzedakah giving.

I believe, most people mean well and try to do the right thing. There will always be someone who can’t turn away a needy person or ignore a person who is suffering. When they see a picture of a catastrophe on the front page of the newspaper or someone tells them a heartfelt story of a needy person, they quickly reach into their pocket and offer to help.

But the Torah goes on to say, “The poor shall never cease to be need ones in your land.” This verse reminds us while such giving is praiseworthy it is not enough. The Torah says, “There will always be people in need even if it doesn’t appear on the nightly news. And it is our responsibility as human beings to respond not only to a crisis, but to look at the long term needs of those who have been devastated and hurt by nature or human suffering.

Front page giving is sexy and dramatic. Long term giving is not. Just the opposite – it can sometimes feel like a heavy burden to have to carry a person long after their crisis. But this is true tzedakah. Maimonides suggests that the highest form of tzedakah is to set someone up in business, to offer them a loan or to become their partner in a venture that will free them from the constant cycle of need and deprivation. It is much easier to just give someone some money and send them on their way. What Maimonides suggests is much harder – it is a long term commitment to help the individual make it and become self sufficient. So yes, I can feed someone who is hungry. But that does not mean that I made hunger “cease…in your land.”

The guns and missiles are silent in Northern Israel today. But the challenge and the needs have not disappeared. It will take months and maybe years to clean up the mess left by the latest war on the Lebanese border – and we can’t even be sure that the threat will not return. It will take even longer for the men, women, and children who were scarred by this threat to overcome the trauma left behind by weeks in bomb shelter and fleeing their homes in fear.

Poverty and need will not ‘cease from the land,’ for another reason as well. It is easy to throw some money into a pot to help meet the general needs of those who face adversity. It is much harder to address the individual needs of each person affected by crisis and catastrophe.

The Vilna Gaon asks, why the Torah repeatedly tells us Patoach tiftach – that you shall open your hand to the need? The Gaon points out that when you look at a closed fist all the fingers look the same: one is no different than another. When we open our hands and look at our fingers we see that they are different from one another: One is long and another is short. The Vilna Gaon teaches that by telling us to open our hands the Torah reminds us to acknowledge the unique needs of each person and to address those needs in a way that will uniquely solve that person’s problems.

I am proud of our congregation this week. In a relatively short time we managed to raise over forty thousand dollars to help Israel in its time of need. This week we sent off a check for 80,000 dollars on behalf of our entire community to purchase an ambulance for the Magen David Adom. In addition we were able to send off several thousand dollars more for blood centers and supplies to help this organization.

But we are now facing the real challenge. Israel’s needs did not end with the final Katusha rocket. We need to let Israel know that we will be at her side ‘for the long haul’ and not just when she is on the front page of the newspaper.

And that applies to tzedakah in general. Do we give only when we feel a pressing need? Or do we recognize that human needs ‘will never cease’ from the land, and that giving is not something we do at the office – it is a way of life?

As the High Holy Days approach let us not forget the threefold challenge that can transform our lives: Teshuvah, Tefillah and Tzedakah: Repentance, prayer and deeds of righteous giving. They are not occasional acts but a way to live that can transform our lives and mend the world.

Shabbat Shalom