Dear Friends,
We’ve learned from our parents and teachers that when we have sufficient, we are to provide for those who lack. It is axiomatic. We not only have learned it, but we teach it to our children and grandchildren, automatically.
It is a core tenet of our ethical system.
And, it is not only a general command of our Torah, but it is explicit in our Torah portion for this Shabbat/last day of Passover: “Bear in mind that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and your God יהוה redeemed you; therefore I enjoin this commandment upon you today.” (Deut. 15:15)
Rashi, our Medieval Torah commentator par excellence, adds to this command: “BEAR IN MIND THAT YOU WERE SLAVES IN THE LAND OF EGYPT — and I loaded thee with good things, and did so a second time — from the spoil of the land of Egypt and from the spoil at the Red Sea; so you, too, load him once, and do it again for him.”
Rashi’s addition asserts that we were twice recipients of God’s beneficence – when we departed from Egypt, and when God defeated the Egyptians at the Sea. Thus, we went from impoverished to over-stocked, in the course of brief moments. We have no argument that we are lacking, and Passover doubly demonstrates this – just look at our dinner tables for the two nights of Seder. It is almost obscene the amount of food on so many of our tables, my own, included. We sat down seven, but prepared for 17.
Thus, Rashi teaches that for the needy, we not only load him once, but do it again for him, just as God did for us.
Too many who have means claim that they are lacking. Once we dismissed it as a Depression mentality, for those who came of age in the 1930’s, or a Survivor mentality, for those who survived the Shoa. But, what of the rest? Hasn’t God done doubly well with us in the years since? We live in America, which offers nearly all of us unbridled opportunities, and we have availed ourselves of those prospects.
Thus, Passover’s final Torah portion asserts, “Bear in mind that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and your God יהוה redeemed you; therefore I enjoin this commandment upon you today.”
The command to load up the needy – double.
With Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
We’ve learned from our parents and teachers that when we have sufficient, we are to provide for those who lack. It is axiomatic. We not only have learned it, but we teach it to our children and grandchildren, automatically.
It is a core tenet of our ethical system.
And, it is not only a general command of our Torah, but it is explicit in our Torah portion for this Shabbat/last day of Passover: “Bear in mind that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and your God יהוה redeemed you; therefore I enjoin this commandment upon you today.” (Deut. 15:15)
Rashi, our Medieval Torah commentator par excellence, adds to this command: “BEAR IN MIND THAT YOU WERE SLAVES IN THE LAND OF EGYPT — and I loaded thee with good things, and did so a second time — from the spoil of the land of Egypt and from the spoil at the Red Sea; so you, too, load him once, and do it again for him.”
Rashi’s addition asserts that we were twice recipients of God’s beneficence – when we departed from Egypt, and when God defeated the Egyptians at the Sea. Thus, we went from impoverished to over-stocked, in the course of brief moments. We have no argument that we are lacking, and Passover doubly demonstrates this – just look at our dinner tables for the two nights of Seder. It is almost obscene the amount of food on so many of our tables, my own, included. We sat down seven, but prepared for 17.
Thus, Rashi teaches that for the needy, we not only load him once, but do it again for him, just as God did for us.
Too many who have means claim that they are lacking. Once we dismissed it as a Depression mentality, for those who came of age in the 1930’s, or a Survivor mentality, for those who survived the Shoa. But, what of the rest? Hasn’t God done doubly well with us in the years since? We live in America, which offers nearly all of us unbridled opportunities, and we have availed ourselves of those prospects.
Thus, Passover’s final Torah portion asserts, “Bear in mind that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and your God יהוה redeemed you; therefore I enjoin this commandment upon you today.”
The command to load up the needy – double.
With Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
