The Activating Heart
by Itamar Dotan Katz
Dear friends,
One of my teachers toward ordination was a Hasidic drummer who went by Reb Dovid. Studying Talmud with him, which I was lucky enough to do weekly for seven good years, was a careful text study of ideas in the form of a whirlwind of thought. R’ Dovid also knows about money. Most people don’t know him as a drummer but as the director of an energy consultancy company. And he knows about spirit. At least as many people know him as an avid student, who spends hours every day at the House of Study. One of the simplest and greatest lessons he taught me was this: money does not belong to us. We feel generous when we give tsedakah. In truth we are just passing along what we were holding onto as custodians.
Rabbi Dovid’s notion can free us to transform our most physical, mundane and dangerous property, with which many of us have weird, screwed up relationships, into goodness, love and purpose. Money can ruin us, or it can elevate us.
This week’s Parashah is called Trumah, Hebrew for donation. When we come to build the tabernacle, the abode of God in our midst, we first take a Trumah from “every person whose heart so moves them.” Out of the thing that is entirely utilitarian we build the most ephemeral, the most useless, the most ridiculous – to imagine that God needs an abode is absurd, especially for theists! - place we have; and thus the most important.
Trumah is the Bar Mitzvah parashah of my nephew Nahar. I’ve probably mentioned him before, because he’s this incredible person who teaches those around him how to be present and find joy. He’s also in a wheelchair and severely disabled since a car crash when he was an infant. Nahar’s was a Bar Mitzvah for the ages. I remember him up by the Torah, hitting the button that would play the recording of the Torah blessing: “Barchu et Adonai Hamvorach!” I remember all of us replying, “Baruch Adonai Hamvorach le’olam va’ed,” and then waiting as he found a way to bring his hand to the button again to complete the blessing. And I remember the deep connection that emerged that day between Nahar and the words: איש אשר ידבנו לבו, “every person whose heart so moves them.”
Trumah means donation or gift, but it comes from the root “to raise.” A donation has the power to raise the dirt to the heavens, to raise selfishness to giving, to raise depression to quiet joy. Every person whose heart so moves them can take part in the raising up of spirit. You can look at Nahar today and see a nineteen-year-old who can’t speak or move freely, or you can experience his great soul, if you allow your heart to move you into a space of generosity.
It is through this generosity that the things we value most are created. This Shul was created by such an energy by Holly and Ellen and many others, and maintained through the love, work and donations of countless others over the years. The same is true for our arts institutions, our justice workers, and most other organizations of value in our society.
This Shabbat I invite you to make a donation. Elevate your money. Or rather, pass on the money that landed in your hands. I’ll name a few organizations and initiatives that seem especially important right now. Choose one or more or all of them, or give to one of your own causes.
This little Shul that could, The New Shul is, as per, on the brink. No joke. Help us HERE!
VOCAL NY is on the front lines of the valiant and perpetual fight against homelessness and poverty in this city.
The Freedom Agenda is working to close the stain on this city known as Rikers Island.
Torat Tzedek : The Torah of Justice is leading the precarious charge for a Judaism in Israel/Palestine that is based on the inherent value of every human life.
HIAS has been the leading American organization working for refugees for over a century and is needed now more than ever.
The Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees is hard at work supporting those who have lost their homes in the recent devastating earthquake.
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice is a local org that partners with other communities on issues such as fair pay for home-care workers, police accountability and combating hate.
One example of their work is taking place tomorrow night, where in response to the white supremacists Day of Hate, JFREJ is leading a Havdalah Against Hate, which we can all easily join from wherever we are.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Misha