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I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share with you an excerpt from an article by Sarah Maddali entitled "God Gives So You Can Help Others" teaching us a better way to look at what we receive.
 

This week’s Torah portion discusses many of the holidays including Passover, the Omer, Shavout, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret. In the middle of relaying information about each respective holiday, the verse tells us, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not remove completely the corners of your field as you reap and you shall not gather the gleanings of your harvest; for the poor and the proselyte shall you leave them; I am the Lord Your God.” (23:22). What is the connection of these seemingly disparate ideas: leaving the corners of the field for the poor and the holiest days of the year?

[...] Rabbi Avdmi ben R’ Yose answers this question with a remarkable response. He states that if someone leaves gifts for the poor, it was as if he built the Holy Temple and brought his offerings to God in it (Rashi; Sifra). How is this the case? Farmers put in tremendous efforts in ensuring a thriving, good harvest. [...] He had to plant and reap and plow and sew and harvest and weed the field, including the corners, knowing full well that he would not be able to profit or partake in the corner’s produce. It would be easy for one to turn a blind eye on the parts of the field that you could not partake in, but one who invested time and effort, ensuring the corners of the field are just as fruitful as the rest, is doing so because God commanded him to do so. They recognize that God sees and is responsible for creating a flourishing crop. They recognize that God gave them the crop to begin with and just as easily could have put them in the position of being the poor person, needing to collect from the corners of someone else’s field. They invest their own time, efforts, sweat for the sake of helping someone less fortunate than themselves. This noble act makes it worthy of being sandwiched between the holidays.

Often times we think that I have the field but now I have to share. But this is backwards thinking. God gave you the land so that you could perform this particular mitzvah and share with others. We think that we are sharing what we worked hard for and rightfully earned. However, the opposite is true: God only gave us what we have so that we can then use it in the service of Him and helping others. [...] God lovingly gives us everything we need to provide for ourselves and family and perform mitzvot, help others, connect to God and achieve our highest, holiest potential. If we look at it as an opportunity from God then we are bringing our own sacrifice and offering to God, just as Rabbi Avdmi ben R’ Yose says.

Exercise: Invest real time and effort in helping someone else. If making food for someone, make something special, instead of just thinking that something is better than nothing. If calling someone who needs, give them your undivided attention instead of trying to multitask. Have in mind that God gave you extra (time, resources, etc.) in order to partake in the mitzvah of helping others. In helping others, you are also giving a special offering to God.

Hoping and praying for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org

We are excited to be partnering with Mizrachi World Movement to provide their publication of HaMizrachi Parasha Weekly.

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Do you enjoy small fix-it projects or just love helping out? We’re looking for friendly hands to assist with minor repairs, like sealing doors and patching up little gaps. No special skills needed! Just a willingness to pitch in and help make a difference! If you’d like to help, please reach out to Dan Malamud or Oriel Weinberg. We truly appreciate it!

Website Update:
We are pleased to share that thanks to a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern New Jersey, SOI will be redesigning our website. As a ShulCloud-based site, updates take place in real time. This means that users will see updates to the design, navigation, and pages as they take place in all phases of the project, rather than only once the project is completed. It may take a few months for the website to display in its final form. We look forward to our site being easier to navigate for our members and better communicate what we offer to those seeking information about SOI. We appreciate your patience throughout this process! 

Thank you to the volunteers who helped with last week's Kiddush. 

Thank you to the volunteers who helped with last week's Seudah Shlishit. 

Thank you to Debbie Pester, Debbie Fineberg, Harvey Chaitoff, Jeff Liss, Adam Shulman, Steve Koloski, Shlomo Aronoff, Sam Tilonsky and JFed Security Officer Bill DiCola for providing security on Shabbos.

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