Reach out and Help someone in Need
Recently I was driving through parts of Los Angles. I was saddened to see the damage done to city. Stores were boarded up and the streets were bombed out. The police were on full alert but the streets were vacant. What was a vibrant community had turned empty with people afraid and worried.
This reminded me of a time when I visited New York City. I took the New York Holland Tunnel when the cars in front of me came to a stop. With an hour left until Shabbos I was really worried that I won’t be able to make it on time. What could I do?
Suddenly I felt a sharp movement, a shuddering in my chest. Could I be having a heart attack? I began to pray and in a short while traffic moved on. Then, it happened again, this time I really became frightened. What’s happening? Once again I said my prayer, promising God if I make it through I’ll be good. You know that experiencing any medical emergency makes one more religious then ever!
I was being tested. It was my new iPhone placed in my shirt pocket on a vibrator mode! What a frightening experience. To say the least I was very relieved.
Think of the peoples’ behavior and their irrational response. How we make the most confounding observation. It’s like closing our eyes midday and claim its dark so it must be night… people find reasons for making bad resolutions based on false observations. Statutes are being destroyed and statutes are trampled! Misled. We justify using might and ignore what’s right!
There is a crying need to adopt an attitude of thanking God for the simple things in life. We have a place to sleep and remember there are tens of thousands that are homeless, we have food to eat while others wait on lines waiting for a food handout. We have family and friends while the one of the biggest problems is loneliness.
In a recent book ‘Together’ written by Vivek H. Murthy, MD the 19th surgeon General of the United States Stated the following “During my Years caring for patients, the most common condition I saw was not heart disease or diabetes; it was Loneness.” So with the above in mind lets reach out and extend our friendship to all people and nationalities. Let us do our mitzvhas indiscriminately.
The sad 21 days in the Jewish calendar that began on the 17th of Tammuz and continue into the month of Menachem Av that begins tonight, Tuesday night July 21st, and culminates on the 9th of Menachem Av = Tisha B-Av on July 30th. It is the time that Eretz Yisroel, Israel was captured and the Holy-Temples, the first and the second, were burned and destroyed on the same day of 9th of Menachem Av.
Let’s use these days to prepare for the ushering in of the third Holy Temple. Lets reach out and extend a smile with some help to those less fortunate then us.
Lets do it Happily!
