Dear Friends,
Don’t worry if finances are tight. At least, in our payment to the ancient priest. (Not so with our heating bills this winter… or…)
This week, Torah offers a fantastically progressive perspective on paying one’s requisite obligations, recognizing the poor person or one whose finances are tight, and the need to adjust expectations.
“If, however, one is poor and without sufficient means… That person shall then offer one of the turtledoves or pigeons, depending on the person’s means – whichever that person can afford…” (Lev. 14:21, 30-31)
Clearly, Torah is teaching a realistic and magnanimous approach to collection of offerings from those of varying means. From Rothschild, the priest could collect plenty of sheep and lambs. But from the town beggar, a pigeon would suffice.
Yet, there clearly is a larger, grander message being presented here. More than merely the reasonable and pragmatic point that the tax-collector, or the priest, can only collect what is available, Torah is teaching an abiding ethic about how to structure a decent society. Torah knows and stresses repeatedly that not all Israelites will be of sufficient means. And, Torah consistently compels our communities to care for the poor and the vulnerable. Yet, it is not so naïve to imagine that our efforts will irradicate poverty or eliminate neediness. In fact, elsewhere Torah states that “there always will be the poor among us.”
Our task is to structure our society so that we neither demean nor exclude those whose means are wanting from access to the services and support which community provides.
Hence, a pigeon will suffice. But…
As we continue to cringe at the suffering of Ukrainians under fire from the Russian Army, this message rings loudly. A full tenth of Ukraine’s pre-war population has fled as refugees to other countries; a quarter have been displaced from their homes. Our support of HIAS, the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and other humanitarian organizations is helping to connect those who have nary a pigeon any more to find small measures of hope and sustenance.
Synagogues and churches in Poland, Romania and Moldova are taking in dozens. German householders are sheltering families. Latvian social service centers are housing orphans.
Torah reminds us that giving what we can give matters. So does war. And, Torah reminds us that we all must contribute, even if only that of a pigeon’s worth: “whichever that person can afford…”
(Please find the link to HIAS above).
With hope and prayers. Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Don’t worry if finances are tight. At least, in our payment to the ancient priest. (Not so with our heating bills this winter… or…)
This week, Torah offers a fantastically progressive perspective on paying one’s requisite obligations, recognizing the poor person or one whose finances are tight, and the need to adjust expectations.
“If, however, one is poor and without sufficient means… That person shall then offer one of the turtledoves or pigeons, depending on the person’s means – whichever that person can afford…” (Lev. 14:21, 30-31)
Clearly, Torah is teaching a realistic and magnanimous approach to collection of offerings from those of varying means. From Rothschild, the priest could collect plenty of sheep and lambs. But from the town beggar, a pigeon would suffice.
Yet, there clearly is a larger, grander message being presented here. More than merely the reasonable and pragmatic point that the tax-collector, or the priest, can only collect what is available, Torah is teaching an abiding ethic about how to structure a decent society. Torah knows and stresses repeatedly that not all Israelites will be of sufficient means. And, Torah consistently compels our communities to care for the poor and the vulnerable. Yet, it is not so naïve to imagine that our efforts will irradicate poverty or eliminate neediness. In fact, elsewhere Torah states that “there always will be the poor among us.”
Our task is to structure our society so that we neither demean nor exclude those whose means are wanting from access to the services and support which community provides.
Hence, a pigeon will suffice. But…
As we continue to cringe at the suffering of Ukrainians under fire from the Russian Army, this message rings loudly. A full tenth of Ukraine’s pre-war population has fled as refugees to other countries; a quarter have been displaced from their homes. Our support of HIAS, the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and other humanitarian organizations is helping to connect those who have nary a pigeon any more to find small measures of hope and sustenance.
Synagogues and churches in Poland, Romania and Moldova are taking in dozens. German householders are sheltering families. Latvian social service centers are housing orphans.
Torah reminds us that giving what we can give matters. So does war. And, Torah reminds us that we all must contribute, even if only that of a pigeon’s worth: “whichever that person can afford…”
(Please find the link to HIAS above).
With hope and prayers. Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
