Close To Torah

I’d like to thank my good friends Dovid Boruch Kopel and Yosef Tropper for giving me this opportunity to reach readers like you who have a desire to become ‘Close to Torah’ – pun intended. I hope you will enjoy my weekly post in which I will share my experiences and take on outreach in today’s evolving world. I look forward to your feedback and thoughts!

• As we see from our Patriarch Abraham and Matriarch Sarah, Kindness, Faith and a Passion for Truth are three important keys to be successful in reaching out to your fellow Jew. Tips on how you can integrate them into your daily life.

Outreach is a word, similar to the word Kiruv – that has been overused and vaguely defined in recent years. In fact there exists a fine line between the words outreach and Kiruv. Simply put, outreach connotes an act of yes, reaching out. While on the other hand, Kiruv is translated to mean – to bring close.

One may reach out to someone but will not necessarily bring them closer toward Judaism. The key is to reach out in a fashion that will! How does one do that? Well, bear with me and read on!

With that said, I’d like to take a stab at providing some background as to what we call outreach. Furthermore, I’d like to suggest strategies as to how we can successfully play a role in helping our fellow Jewish brethren realize what it means to be a member of our Chosen nation.

The best example we can avail ourselves of the world’s first ‘outreach professional’ is that of our Patriarch Abraham. Together with his wife Sarah, they would reach out to those around them and as Rashi explains, “Abraham would teach the men, and Sarah (would teach) the women.”

Despite being raised in what we would call a primitive and ‘deprived’ world, Abraham faced down the influence of his father Terach’s idols. Those were the days before Blackberries and Airplanes. However, as every generation since the six days of Creation, there were existing negative influences that caused people to run astray.

As the famous story goes, as a young child Abraham’s father asked him to watch over his idol shop one day. When he returned, all the idols had been destroyed and lay in ruins.

When confronted by his irate father, Abraham calmly explained that a fight had broken out among the idols and that he was not responsible for the vast damage. Incensed, his father took him to the King – Nimrod – who ordered him burned to death as punishment. Miraculously, Abraham survived – the first of many subsequent miracles over the course of his lifetime which was fraught with constant tests and tribulations.

Another central and famous tenet of Abraham’s life was the legendary, Abraham’s Tent. With openings on each of the four sides, he constantly sought out weary travelers and took them in providing them with food and shelter from the blazing heat of the desert.

His devotion to his guests was clear and knew no bounds. When he was recovering from his circumcision at the late age of ninety-nine, Hashem appeared to him to be ‘M’vaker Choleh’ – visiting the sick. Seeing his evident distress at not being able to provide hospitality, Hashem sent Angels disguised as travelers so Abraham would have the opportunity to serve them.

With this information in hand, we can perhaps gain insight as to how Abraham went about reaching out. There were three central practices that he exemplified: Kindness, Faith and a Passion for Truth.

These three life-concepts played an important role in his method of outreach. This is how they can be applied to our quest and effort.

Kindness: Outreach is about building relationships with fellow Jews. All of us have met Jews from diverse backgrounds and of varying persuasions. However, it’s crucial that we show kindness and friendship toward one another enabling the building of a rapport as well as the sense of commonality. Building a bridge with your fellow Jew is but the first important step in their subsequent journey toward exploring their precious roots.

• Make an effort to act with kindness toward your Jewish co-worker, neighbor or friend.

Faith: Just as a salesman must truly and whole-heartedly believe in the product they’re selling, so too we must feel passionate about our Judaism in concept and practice. Our actions speak louder than our words. While we will often influence those around us with our passion and our thoughts, we must be living proof to the Torah’s way of life and be a positive example of what it means to be a Jew. We must internalize our beliefs deep within our hearts but most importantly ensure that we manifest it outwardly in our actions.

• Act in a way that causes people to want to be Jewish. A walking sanctification of the Divine name.

Passion for Truth: Not only is it crucial that we build a relationship with our fellow Jews through kindness as well as by living example, we must be sincere. We must feel for our brethren and show feelings of compassion. The tide of assimilation and devastation of intermarriage must bother us and motivate us to stand up for the life of truth. It’s our call to action. Our beliefs, coupled by our convictions must serve as a motivation to sincerely do our part on behalf of our nation.

• Resolve to do one positive action today to help the Jewish nation. Reach out and touch the heart of ‘Just One Jew’!

In times of spiritual darkness, Abraham and Sarah stood up to the idols of society and offered an alternative lifestyle of meaning, purpose and truth in contrast to the decadence of the day and age. They didn’t focus on their odds or on the mere statistics but genuinely cared for each and every one of their students.

Through their principles of kindness, faith and by constantly striving for truth they laid the sacred foundation of our nation’s history and merited the Divine blessing that our nation would multiply like the sand along the shores.

Let’s jump start our personal effort of reaching out by integrating these three important yet simple concepts into our everyday lives. Not only will it enrich our lives through the newly found sense of purpose, it will also add clarity and provide clear reason for being placed down here on this earth. However most importantly, it will enable each and every one of us to take our spiritual lives to the next level.

By helping our fellow Jew ascend in their level of understanding and practice, we will merit to see an improvement in our own service and worship of our Creator.

• Let’s begin a chain of good deeds. Reply now with your one deed you’ve resolved to do today. We’ll publish a list of all the deeds from readers and see how by working together we can bring about positive and spiritual change one good deed at a time. Personally, I’ve resolved to call one traditional Jew and share a short Torah thought with him. What’s yours? I’d love to hear about it!

Next week: The Tests and Tribulations of Abraham: Lessons Learned

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Categories: Hashkafah Tags: Avraham Avinu, Chessed, Emunah