“Lighting Up the Neighborhood”
By Rabbi Cookie Lea
Olshein
Temple Israel of West Palm
Beach
Copyright 2012
Rosh
HaShanah Morning
Sermon – 2012
Gut yuntif.
I want to start this morning by
telling you a story about a little girl I know.
She’s from a nice middle class family, her dad has a special skill
and works for a government contractor and her mom stays at home, volunteering with
the PTA and running a troop of Brownies and being the team mom for her son’s
little league baseball team.
They live in a medium-sized house in the suburbs and have two cars,
one a couple years old and the second a few years older than that.
They have reasonably nice, but not too extravagant, furniture in
their medium-sized house, and the kids get new toys on a somewhat regular
basis, but not so often that they are spoiled.
But then dad loses his job through no fault of his own … and the
bottom falls out of their family financially.
This is the story of a family that had done everything right …
they actually had the recommended 6 months of savings in the bank … and, still,
everything fell apart.
To make ends meet, mom babysits kids all day, every day, in their
home. Dad takes a job working in another
field, at a salary significantly lower than his skilled trade paid, just to try
to make ends meet.
But no matter how much they both work, things get worse and worse
over time … they tighten their belts, but they can never seem to catch up …
and, even though they both work, and even though they had the suggested 6
months’ savings in the bank just like they were supposed to … even though … .
And so they go to get food stamps … and every once in a while they
receive government surplus food like green beans in great big, huge cans and
jars of peanut butter and boxes of dry milk … and when the little girl is asked what her
favorite food is, she answers:
“Government Cheese,” saying, “nothing makes a grilled cheese sandwich like
government cheese.”
The people I’m describing are the working poor, people who
struggle to make ends meet and keep food on the table, even though they work
hard every day to do everything right for their families. They pay taxes and they volunteer in their
community but, in their “new normal,” they just can’t seem to get ahead.
[What Does it Mean to Serve
God?]
Last night, I introduced a piece of text from Pirke Avot, often called the Ethics of Our Fathers, which says, Al shlosha d’varim haolam omeid: On three things the world stands: Al
hatorah, on the study of Torah (and learning); v’al
ha’avodah, and on worship or service to God; v’al
g’milut chasadim, and on acts of lovingkindness.
We talked about learning last night … this morning, we focus on
the word, avodah, yet another Hebrew
word with more than one meaning.
When hearing avodah, I
first think of the word “worship” as its translation, but then again, I’m a
rabbi. I think most non-rabbis, though,
would initially translate the word as “work” … avodah is your sorta’ plain ordinary work … it’s your “job.” That doesn’t sound much like worship, does
it?
And then there's my favorite definition for avodah … I love translating avodah
as service. I like that being “in
service to others” for God’s sake is one of the three things necessary for our world to be in
balance.
Worship, work, and service … three very different definitions for
a single Hebrew word.
I once asked a group of kids which one of these three God might want us to do the most of …
and almost all said worship. They all
thought God wanted us to pray more
than anything else. Now, don’t get me
wrong, I love seeing all of your faces out there this morning, but if I could only do one thing to express my Judaism, I would think of the Haftarah text we read on Yom Kippur from the book of Isaiah … when
God, speaking through Isaiah, says:
-
Is this the fast I have chosen?
A day of self-affliction?
-
Bowing your head like a reed, and covering yourself with sackcloth
and ashes?
-
Is not [instead] THIS the fast I have chosen:
-
To unlock the shackles of injustice, to loosen the ropes of the
yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to tear every yoke apart?
-
Surely it is to share
your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, never withdrawing yourself
from your own kin.
When I read a prophet like Isaiah, who in modern times we would
just think of as schizophrenic or just plain crazy, I hear God saying we have a call to action greater than fasting on Yom Kippur … my mind immediately goes to
verses from the Torah about how we choose to treat each other, thinking not
just about the people we already
know, but also the people we not only don’t
already know, but also probably people we really don’t WANT to know.
[Sources in Support of Our
Obligation to Act in Service to Each Other and God]
I hear this verse in my head: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” [i] And then I hear the unspoken answer, “Of
course, I am.”
And I hear this verse in my head:
“Love your neighbor as yourself” [ii]
… although I think that some of us might need to love our neighbors better than we love ourselves, because
some of us don’t treat ourselves very
well.
And I hear this verse in my
head: “Do not stand idly by while your
neighbor bleeds.” [iii]
And, because of this focus on how we
treat our neighbors, I have been forced to ask myself … who is my
neighbor? Why do I have to treat them so
well? Why should I feel obligated to do
anything for a stranger?
One simple answer is repeated over
and over again in the Torah … because you were strangers in the land of Egypt
and you didn’t like it so much when no one stood up for you … you didn’t like
it so much when no one helped you … and if you didn’t like it, don’t
do it to anyone else.
[Who are the People in
Temple Israel’s Neighborhood?]
So let’s take a look at our neighborhood here at Temple Israel,
zip code 33407 … or, as the old Sesame Street song goes, “who are the people in
the neighborhood?”
I’m sure all of you know this, but I recently learned that the
neighborhood next to where Temple Israel sits is called “Pleasant City,” right
near the now-revitalizing area of Northwood … so close to us, where so many of
the people in our neighborhood are struggling, that maybe it isn’t so “pleasant.”
25% of Temple Israel’s zip code lives in poverty. The median per capita income in this zip code
is around $18,000 per year and over 50% of the people in our neighborhood are
eligible for food stamps.[iv] These are people living in a darkened world.
For months now, our partner, CROS Ministries had been planning to open a new
West Palm Beach Food Pantry, at a multicultural center just 4 blocks from Temple Israel … but,
even though the Food Pantry had been requested
to be put in Pleasant City by city officials because of desperate need in our
area, a different city agency is now
questioning whether CROS’ efforts would draw additional homeless people to the
area … and now the plan is on the backburner.
Consequently, and until this food pantry is allowed to open, people
in West Palm still have to figure out how to get to Lake Worth or Riviera Beach because of the “not in my back yard” issues. By the way, you should know that only 2% of
the people served by CROS food pantries are actually homeless since food
pantries generally have very little ready-to-eat, no-cooking-required food …
you should also know that all of CROS’ food pantries primarily serve people already in the neighborhood or in neighboring communities.
But what really gets me is that having a food pantry in the
neighborhood could actually help revitalize
the area … if people could get food so they can eat, perhaps crime would go down … and when children receive proper
nutrition, they might even pass in
school. Sounds like a “win-win” to me.
[The National Circles
Campaign]
Recently, I attended a "poverty simulation game” sponsored by the
Center for Family Services of Palm Beach County, introducing a new program
called the National Circles Campaign.
The simulation was held at a community center maybe two miles from here,
but in reality, it was a lifetime away.
The “game” if you will, went like
this … each person was assigned a role to play simulating a month in the life
of a real family … everyone had a
role and my role was to be the 8 year old daughter of a single mom with two
kids. Because it was a poverty simulation, of course, the expenses of
the family outweighed the income, but the best thing about the simulation was
that it helped explain how a low-income makes choices, week
by week, and how they move through “the
system.”
For example, try getting yourself to
a government agency which is only open from 8:30-5:00 when you actually ARE a
working person.
And what if you are in
line, but you haven’t been helped, and the clock turns 5? Too bad, you are told to come back tomorrow … and that’s possibly another day not working.
Or how about getting yourself to the County Human Services office
because you can’t pay your rent and being told they can only give you $50?
Or how about trying to get food stamps? Most people don’t apply
until they are already desperate … and then, if they are eligible, it takes1-2
months before you get them. What are you
supposed to do to feed your kids between now and then?
And, by the way, if you do qualify, the average is $31 per
person in the household per week … how many of us can eat an even-close-to-healthy diet on $31 per week? I tried to
figure it out based on what I usually eat and I couldn’t do it. I am a
pretty good little shopper and I would have run
out before the week ended.
So how do you navigate the maze of getting yourself out of the
cycle of poverty?
The National Circles Campaign creates circles of people in poverty
working with middle and upper-middle class allies on their journey towards
self-sufficiency.
The program works like this: what if we trained people choosing to get out of poverty to learn
the hidden rules
of socio-economic classes? What if we taught them how these hidden rules can
serve as barriers to effective communication and advancement? What if
we helped them understand the long-term ramifications that poverty has on their
health, their children’s future, and their communities? What if we helped people develop a plan for a stable, secure future for
their family?
I think about what a simple concept this is … and yet how
profound.
Already in 70 cities, I think participating in a program like this
is really one of the most true examples of loving
your neighbor as yourself, and not
standing by while your neighbor bleeds … if we but choose to help to break the cycle of poverty one family at a time.
[Can We Ever Really Walk a
Mile in Someone Else’s Shoes?]
I can hear some of your voices in my
head right now … “but Rabbi, didn’t a lot of these folks make bad choices and
shouldn’t they suffer the ramifications of their bad choices? Why is it my responsibility to help them?”
Yep, some of them made some really bad choices. Absolutely, they did.
But there’s an old saying … never judge someone else until you
walk a mile in their shoes … but I’m pretty sure none of us want someone else judging every choice we make regarding how we
spend our money and, really, what it comes down to is that no one can really
walk in someone else’s shoes.
Which brings me back to that story of the little girl at the
beginning of my talk.
That little girl was me.
My dad was a union aircraft
mechanic who was laid off for four years and, thankfully, got a job at our
synagogue being sort of the Assistant Building Manager, which was probably
someone like Earnton’s supervisor, but he did all of Earnton’s job, too.
My family got food stamps
and my favorite food in the entire
world is government cheese.
It could happen to anyone.
Anyone in this room … anyone in this neighborhood … anyone in your
neighborhoods.
My parents were amazing people who worked hard to raise good kids and who were hit by a job loss
and a recession.
Our Christian friends and neighbors use the phrase, “there but the
grace of God go I,” but in Judaism, we aren’t passive saying, “thank you that we have not been affected,” because
when one of God’s children is affected,
all of us should feel affected.
[A Call to Action]
And so, as we stand together
during this holiday season, no, this holy day season, where we believe we
will be judged by our actions … our
action or inaction of whether we shared our bread with the hungry, our
action or inaction of whether we
housed the homeless, our action or
inaction of whether we clothed the naked … I ask you to consider some very simple things you can do to help
alleviate hunger in our community, you might even call it your fairly painless
"High Holy Days' To Do List”:
-
Buy an extra … when something
nutritious is on sale, buy an extra and leave it in your car for your next trip
to Temple Israel. Or, when you see a
buy-one-get-one-free deal, bring the second one when you come … after all, that
mitzvah wouldn’t even cost you a penny.
-
When you are thinking about donating food, consider the staples that we will be focusing on each month for the
food pantry … think about things like dry milk, beans, peanut butter, tuna, 2
pound bags of rice … and think about cleaning out your pantry between now and
Yom Kippur and bringing in not just one
bag, but two or three … when I volunteered at the Riviera Beach Food Pantry recently, I
learned that a family of four gets two bags of food … only once every two months at
the Riviera pantry because they get 50-60 families each day they are open … if
they had more food, they could open more often and they could give food out to
a family in need every month.
-
But, if you prefer to “do Jewish” from your house with your giving
instead of giving to CROS, donate to Mazon,
the Jewish response to hunger. You can
find them at www.mazon.org on the internet and make a direct donation there.
-
On the other hand, if you want to make sure your gift stays really
“local,” the best thing you can do is to donate to CROS. While CROS is sorting out the politics, we
will be helping them get ready to open the new
West Palm Beach Food Pantry with our Annual High Holy Days' Food Drive, and then helping to restock them throughout
the year with our special donation “focus item” each month … and, because
Temple Israel is taking on the responsibility of being a “Founding Supporting
Congregation,” I’d love for folks to think about bringing even one can of something to each meeting you attend, think about bringing
one package of mac and cheese to services each time you come, and think
about bringing a package of dry beans
to every class you take. To most of us in this room, it’s not much,
but to one of those children who make up
40% of the clients of the Riviera food pantry, it could be the difference
between going to bed with a full stomach … or going to bed hungry.
Well, I’ve outed myself.
I went through my early life knowing poverty as it exists in
America pretty well … and I know some of you out there did, too … but no
matter how bad we think our situation is currently, all of us here are probably better off
than our neighbors and there is still
something we can give to help end poverty and its effects. For the Circles Campaign, it is the gift of
time. For our hungry neighbors, including the working poor, we can donate food and volunteer in the new Pantry when it opens. You see, we do have the power to lighten our neighbors' darkened world.
[There are No Valid
Excuses for Not Acting]
Remember, no child ever
caused him- or herself to be poor or to be hungry. Poverty and hunger are never the fault of a
child. Never. Not ever.
And no matter whose
fault you think these things might be, no child should ever have to go to bed
hungry in any of our neighborhoods. My family was lucky that we sorta’, eventually, figured out how to manage with our
“new normal” … but not all families can figure this out on their own.
Sometimes families need a little
help through difficult times and sometimes they need a little help up … and it is up to us, as Jews, to do
it because, if nothing else, because we know it’s the right thing to do … it is the right thing to do to be in service to
God by being in service to those in need.
But if that doesn’t motivate you, try this … we should all help
because we never know who one of those kids in our neighborhood might turn out
to be … she could turn out to be your new rabbi.
Gut yuntif.
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