Mitzvah Heroes Dinner

Blog Entry 7-12-2009


Hard to put into words, even for me, what happens when you put about 35 Mitzvah heroes and about 40 guests in a room for what was a very quick 2.5 hours. To share a meal with living legends like Hadassah Levy, The Rabbanit Bracha Kapach, Kalman Samuels, Anita Shkedi, Alice Jonah, Shmuel Monk, and with younger or lesser known heroes, emerging stars like Harel Moyal, Linda Mosek, Caryn Green, Libby Reichman, Ruth Schlossman, Dr. Menachem Gottesman – it is simply overwhelming. To share a word of torah with Shmuel Monk, who literally takes broken desperate adults, finds what is good in them and uses that to fix them, Anita who fixes broken bodies with her equine co-therapists, Libby, who finds volunteers to mentor and nurture children with difficult home situations, to discuss tikun (repairing the world) with Menachem Gottesman who teaches teens in crisis with hugs instead of a raised voice or a negative thought – these are the people that I spent my evening with. What a tremendous honor it is for me to represent you as your shaliach, for me to look like a hero in their eyes -- because of the tzedakah funds you trust Mitzvah Heroes Fund to distribute. It is humbling, and a privilege I don’t take lightly.

On Thursday I’ll be taking an adult group from Congregation Olam Tikvah in Fairfax, Virginia to meet the Rabbanit Kapach and Dr. Menachem Gottesman, head of the Meled School (www.Meled.org.il). There joy and willingness to introduce them to my friends and students; it’s just amazing that they allow me to bring strangers into their homes and schools for the purpose to using them of living examples of a life of mitzvot and the satisfaction of occupying yourself with the helping of others.

One quick anecdote – I’m sitting with Harel, who owns a body shop. As the gabbai of his congregation distributes a lot of tzedakah, some of it from us. I met him two summers ago when he fixed my friend’s air conditioning on a car I was borrowing. He sees a customer of his, Mechachem Gottesman, and wonders out loud to me, “What is he doing here?” I tell him what Menachem does at Meled and his face lights up, and he starts to understand, how you never know about the people, like Harel, like Menachem, like all the Mitzvah Heroes; how they are unassuming, modest, don’t boast about their great works of the lives they save, and just go about their business because it’s “nothing special, just what I do”. Another lesson; treat everyone with respect – you may never know what great mitzvahs they do when you are not watching.

So that you know that it’s still Steve writing I will say that besides meeting with Arnie this morning and taking care of some neighborhood errands, I did get the first (half) schwarma of the season as well as a delicious carrot juice. The Tishbi Sauvignon Blanc I’m drinking as I write this (2 for 50NIS or $6.25 a bottle) is a great way to end a great summer day.

Tomorrow we take a group of USYers (with my longtime friend and colleague in USY, Michelle Rich) to INTRA (The Israel National Therapeutic Riding Association – google it to get their contact info, they have a fairly new “American Friends 501(c)(3) to accept donations) and Lev Ramot (website under construction) a food recovery and distribution non-profit in North Jerusalem. We’ll be packing boxes of food staples (should sound familiar to my Bnai Tzedek 7th and 8th graders – it’s the same kind of work we do at Manna in Rockville) for about 270 needy families in food jeopardy in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem. More on that, but it may take a couple of days since these 11 hour USY days tend to be physically and emotionally exhausting.

Lehitra’ot from the beautiful, meaningful, welcoming city of Jerusalem.