By Lisa Septimus
Since Pesach, my Facebook feed has been filled with friends taking on the Tzedakah Challenge. Although it can be overwhelming to read each one, it is incredible that our community is using social media in productive ways and inspiring themselves and others to do more mitzvot and attend to the needs of those around us. It is inspiring to read posts that are 100 percent encouraging of others without hints of judgment, cynicism, anger, or frustration, especially in a year in which Facebook has been the conduit for such political negativity. It is also remarkable when contrasted with some of the ways that social media is being used by too many young people as a tool of bullying, mocking, or self-promotion.
The time period of mourning during sefirat ha’omer is concluding for most of us this weekend with Lag BaOmer. Traditionally, the mourning is understood to be a response to the deaths of Rebbi Akiva’s students, who were punished because of their insensitivity and mean-spiritedness. Many ask how it is possible for the talmidim of Rebbi Akiva to have exhibited such poor middot. The students’ lack of derech eretz could not have been conscious. Rebbi Akiva’s most famous teaching to his students was precisely the opposite–that “love your friend as yourself” is “the foundational principle of the Torah.”
The Lubavitcher Rebbe points out another famous event that took place during the period of sefirat ha’omer that sheds light on the source of the sin of Rebbi Akiva’s students. On Lag BaOmer, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai emerged from his cave, which represented his retreat from the world and an elitist attitude to the rest of the world. When Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai initially emerges only to be put off by the worldliness of the people around him, he knows he must return to the cave. When he emerges to be inspired by the simple service of G‑d by the people around him, he knows has overcome that trait of elitism.
Perhaps Rebbi Akiva’s students fell into the same trap of elitism. But they got stuck in it, never emerged from it. Having such a great master allowed the students of Rebbi Akiva to develop an arrogance and self-absorption, causing them to lose sight of the value and importance of others. Unlike Rebbi Akiva’s students, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai learned how to learn from those less-learned than him. He takes a lesson from an older man with life experience but little Torah who excitedly carries two hadassim in honor of Shabbat–“one corresponding to zachor and one corresponding to shamor.” Similarly, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai realizes that his greatness in Torah and his strong personality can be used to help those around him rather than to hover above them. He gives a gift to the community when he leaves the cave and enlists the help of the same old man who had been holding the two hadassim to help him purify large areas of the city, thus making them accessible to kohanim.
What the students of Rebbi Akiva fail to learn and what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai successfully learns is that anything, whether something as holy as the Torah or as mundane as a branch–or as the internet–can be used for good or for bad. This dual potential is important to keep in mind so that we make good choices in the way we leverage our gifts from G‑d and the way we engage people who are different from us.
A similar lesson emerges from the story of Rut, which we read on Shavuot at the conclusion of this sefirah time period. Elimelech and Naomi are leaders of Bnei Yisrael during challenging times. With more means at their disposal than their peers, they could have created a plan to help their community survive the famine. Instead, they chose to turn inward, to focus on themselves, and they leave the community, traveling to more fertile land. They swiftly learn their lesson, as G‑d punishes them by killing Elimelech and his two sons. When Naomi and Rut travel back to Beit Lechem it is no wonder that no one goes out of their way to help the now-destitute Naomi. The people are mirroring the actions of their leaders. Elimelech and Naomi withdrew from others and now others withdraw from her. However, it is Rut who is able to turn things around. It is Rut, the outsider, who looks to the needs of her mother-in-law and others, who teaches us what commitment to other people means. It is therefore Rut who is able to inspire others (like Boaz) to help, to take responsibility, and to reunite a family and a community.
The recent tzedakah challenge on Facebook has had a pay-it-forward effect and put a number of worthy organizations on people’s radars. Allow me to put another organization on our collective radar, one that I believe allows us to connect with the broader community and use our privileges and strength to help others 6,000 miles away. Yad Leah is an organization that provides clothing to families in need in Israel. Most of the donated clothing comes from the United States and is collected, sorted, and then shipped to Israel. On Sunday, May 21, 9:30 a.m.—12:30 p.m. at Young Israel of North Woodmere, 634 Hungry Harbor Rd., we will be hosting a clothing drive for Yad Leah. Simultaneously, we will host a pre-Shavuot boutique featuring clothing, jewelry, and household gifts, with a portion of proceeds being donated to Yad Leah to cover their costs.
As we prepare to reaccept the Torah, may we embrace its legacy of expansive communal goodness and G‑dliness.
Mrs. Septimus is rebbetzin of the Young Israel of North Woodmere and yoetzet halacha for the Five Towns.
