Thank you
Parshas Bo 5777
Yes, a plain and simple thank you from me to you.
Twice this week I asked and you answered; the first time was on Monday when a proper crowd from the Shul attended the Trafford Council’s Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration Service in Sale Town Hall. For the first time ever we had a proper Jewish presence there, and the school children, dignitaries and various locals saw that this is something that we as a Jewish Community appreciate and value.
Then on Thursday an elderly gentleman, with limited Jewish family and friends was afforded a proper and respectful Levayah, with a good Minyan made up of men who had never met him in their life but still gave up of their time to perform this special Mitzvah.
We sometimes forget what our simple involvement and participation can mean to others. Everyone leads busy lives, but it is the measure of a person’s soul when they down tools and become active in the community – and not just at the cool in-vogue events.
Our best example of this is in this week’s Sedra when the Jewish nation was given the commandment to prepare a lamb for the forthcoming Pesach sacrifice.
The Pasuk says: “and the Children on Israel went and did what Hashem had commanded Moshe and Aharon, so they did”. On the seemingly superfluous ‘so they did’, Rashi comments that this refers to Moshe and Aharon, that they also prepared a lamb.
Big WOW.
Moshe and Aharon did what they were told to do!
Would we have expected anything else?
However what the Torah is telling us here is in fact something very powerful.
Moshe and Aharon were extremely busy at that point in time, they were legitimately excused from this specific aspect of the commandment. They were perfectly entitled to have someone else choose and prepare the lamb. Their responsibilities to redeem the Jewish People surely outweighed this little task that could so easily and justifiably have been delegated to someone else.
But they didn’t do that. For the first time in our history, we had been commanded as one nation to perform a good deed. This wasn’t the time to delegate, to ‘be otherwise occupied’ whilst others got involved. This was the time to be part of the Kehal.
So thank you to those who did turn up.
But let us please not wait until a funeral or memorial to remind us to play our part. A Shul survives (or not) on the power of its general participation. We have a lovely and loving community. We are blessed with many members who care and take pride in who we are and what we do.
If Moshe and Aharon could muck in, then so can we.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Dovid