Making Every Day Mitzvah Day
On one Sunday this past May members of Temple Beth El gathered together
to perform a variety of different mitzvah projects all around Lee
County. It was quite an experience to see so many people work
together to do so much good and bring so much positivity into our
world. While we call this day Mitzvah Day, we hope that it
will lead each individual to realize that every day should be filled
with the performance of mitzvot. Many of our projects were
focused on helping others and facilitating interaction between our
participants and those they were helping.
There is a chasidic story that emphasizes the importance of seeking out
ways to help others. A man once died and was brought before
the Heavenly Court. When his sins and good deeds were placed
on the scales, his sins far outweighed the good deeds that he had
done. Suddenly a fur coat was piled on the scale, and the man
was sent to Paradise. On the way, he said to the angel who
escorted him: I cannot understand, what did the fur coat have to do
with my judgment? The angel replied, “one cold wintry night
you traveled on a sled and a poor man asked for a ride. You
took him in, and noticing his thin clothes, you placed your fur coat on
him to give him warmth. That was the act of kindness that
offset your transgressions.”
This story teaches how seriously Judaism holds its commitment to aiding
the welfare of others. Yet, the story on its face might seem
somewhat problematic. One might think that such a man
probably spent most of his life ignoring the plight of others, and just
because he helped another man on one occasion, all of his other
misdeeds were overlooked. This though is not the intent of
the story. The message it means to convey is that the act of
helping another human being is so important that it has the power to
change one’s destiny. And because it is so meaningful, it is
not something we can ever ignore. It is great that we come
together once a year for activities like Mitzvah Day, but let us not
wait another whole year before we seek out ways to love our neighbors
like ourselves.
Rabbi Jeremy Barras
