Mitzvah Day is March 28, 2004. On Mitzvah Day, we join together as a community in efforts to make San Antonio a more perfect place. We pick up paint brushes, mops and brooms; hammers and drills. . . . we give of our time and our sweat to help worthy agencies and institutions. This year, we will engage in over 49 projects, in such categories as painting, repair and fix-up, gardening, visiting the elderly, working with children, and organizing and sorting. San Antonio is filled with organizations that are dedicated to making lives better, and we are thrilled to be able to help them further their goals.
Why is Mitzvah Day so important to us? Likely, because it is enjoyable, and because we are able to spend time in community. We have great memories of teaming up with close family friends from the Temple and spending the day together. We equally recall meeting new people and enjoying getting to know them. It's fulfilling to watch our children engaged, happily, in such worthwhile activity.
As significant as these motivators are, there is something deeper: as Jews we know we are obligated. We are enjoined to engage in Tikkun olam, the repairing of the world.
For some of you, the phrase Tikkun olam is quite familiar. For others, it is new. The roots of the concept come from a mystical midrash, made famuous by Rabbi Isaac Luria, who lived in the 16th century, which teaches: When the world was created, there was a single vessel that contained some of the divine light. That vessel was made of clay. The vessel was created because God had to withdraw some of God's light in order to make room, so to speak, for the creation of the world. However, something happened: the vessel broke, and the divine light was sent flying everywhere. The beautiful thing is that some of those divine sparks scattered among all living things, and each of us contains, according to the midrash, a bit of God's divine light.
However, some of the sparks went astray. Because the light is not gathered together, the world is not perfect. Our job is to collect these sparks of divine light, and unite them once more, and then we will achieve tikkun olam, the repair of the world.
Tikkun olam is achieved when we do good work in the world. We gather the shards of light together when we eliminate pain and hardship in the entire world. We are responsible for bringing our world toward perfection. We learn much before the creation of this midrash, in Torah, that we cannot, as we learn in Leviticus 19:6, “stand idly by while our neighbor bleeds”. We cannot ignore the pleas of others. We must engage in doing mitzvoth, to repair the world. We read in Deuteronomy 16:20 Tzedek, Tzedek, Tirdof. . . justice, justice shall you pursue. . . the Torah is replete with instructions for caring for others and the world.
The word mitzvah is often understood as 'good deed' or commandment. I translate it as: “sacred obligation”. In other words, when we engage in Mitzvah Day, we attend to our sacred obligation to make this world a better place. It is not simply a good deed-it is far more than that. It is our sacred obligation to ensure that we do not stand idly by while our neighbors bleed.
When we engage in events such as Mitzvah Day, we surely make a difference. We help an important organization serve more members; take on larger tasks; be more effective. We touch people's lives with a laugh, or a kind touch. How wonderful this is!
Yet there is more. On Mitzvah Day we open our eyes to the work that must be done. Engaging in one day of tikkun olam is a blessed beginning, and continued service is a necessary fulfillment of our sacred task.
Mitzvah Day should be the foundation of our commitment to fulfilling our sacred obligation of tikkun olam. In the Ethics of the Fathers, or Pirke Avot, from the Mishnah, Rabbi Tarfon taught: It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” It is our task to continue the work that we begin on Mitzvah Day. One day is not the beginning and the end. One day of service is just the beginning.
Let me guess what you are thinking: “Yes, Rabbi, I understand it is vitally important, but where will I find the time?” I find my answer in the previous mishnah, also from Rabbi Tarfon. “The day is short and the task is great. . .” I know our time is limited, but we must engage in continued tikkun olam. We must engage in continued social action with the time we have, and make it a priority to do so.
How long does it take to remember to bring canned goods to donate at our small food pantry? How many minutes does it take to glance at the bulletin and see if there is a social action project that you could join in for a few minutes, or even a few hours? How long will it take for you to clean your closet to donate the clothes you don't wear any more? To work with your children to donate toys that they have grown out of, instead of throwing them away? How much effort does it take to bring your recycling to a school, so that they can receive the money from the recycling company? How hard is it to recycle? To not waste water?
Danny Siegel, who founded “Ziv Tzedekah Fund”, a wildly successful organization dedicated to tikkun olam, writes about how to get involved in doing good deeds. He writes: “To personalize your involvement, consider both what you like to do and what you are good at. Evaluate your talents and the areas where you excel- formally or informally-be it catching a football, making salads, or surfing the web. For example, if you ski, contribute to a ski resort where disabled skiers will also be enjoying the slopes. If you or your child love animals and household pets, take the dog to the nursing home, or buy birds or an aquarium for the facility. Visit and admire the fish and birds along with the residents.” It seems that his advice is simplistic. Yet, as he travels the country-and he has for over 20 years, looking for people he considers mitzvah heroes-he has found, consistently, that those who started small, and with something they loved, they stayed passionate and committed, enabling them to achieve great things. The Ziv Tzedekah Fund's motto is: “To fix the world, stick your neck out”. He believes that by sharing the projects of one person who stuck their neck out that it will inspire others to engage as well. For example, Ashley, who, for a bat mitzvah project, gathered teddy bears to be sent to Hadassah hospital in Israel. She gathered 180 teddy bears, all delivered to children in the hospital. Or, the story, in our own community, of how we were inspired to begin a meals on wheels route. Who knew, that through word of mouth, that we would have know have two active routes, feeding over 20 people every day?
There is a favorite song I had growing up at camp also from Mishnah Pirke Avot. It is a song, in fact, that we will sing shortly. It is quite brief, only six words, and the verse reads as follows: “Mitzvah goreret mitzvah; averah goreret averah”: A mitzvah leads to another mitzvah; one transgression leads to another transgression. With one mitzvah, we can easily be encouraged to engage in more mitzvoth! How inspired we are by Ashley's teddy bears! How easy it would be to call our friends, send an email, and do the same. . . it's not that hard. . . if doing mitzvoth is “catching” then Mitzvah Day should not stand alone.
Marge Piercy, a well known author and poet, wrote a book of poems in 1999 called “The Art of Blessing the Day”. Her title poem ends: “What we want to change we curse then pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can with eyes and hand and tongue. If you can't bless it, get ready to make it new.”
We are charged with turning the world into one which can be fully blessed. Since, at this point, the world is not perfect, we must, as Piercy wrote, pick up a tool. Each of has our own tool with which to bless the world and make it more perfect. We must pick up our tools to engage in tikkun olam, and create a world filled with blessings, and continue the work we begin on Mitzvah Day.
I know I'll see you on March 28, and I know that as a community, we will make a difference. We will help San Antonio agencies, and they will be blessed by the work of our hands. Let our hands stay active, so that Mitzvah Day will be the beginning of doing a mitzvah a day. “Mitzvah goreret mitzvah”: may the work of mitzvah day led to another mitzvah, and another, and another. . . . and then God's light will shine every more brightly upon us. Amen. (sing Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah)
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