Living Jewish in San Francisco: THE RABBI'S BLOGRabbi's Blog
Rabbi Joel Landau (rabbi@adathisraelsf.org) has been the Rabbi of Adath Israel since May 2013. He was ordained by the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem and has served previously as a congregational Rabbi in Charleston, South Carolina and Irvine, California. A full biography of Rabbi Landau is available here.
- Details
I’m sure that during the course of the past week you’ve regularly been checking various news outlets for information regarding the situation in Israel. I’ve been doing so on an hourly basis, if not more frequently. My son Tzachi (short for Yitzchak) is a paratrooper and has been involved in the fighting since day one. He is currently somewhere in the southern Gaza Strip helping to rid Israel of Hamas and its lethal arsenal. We are looking forward to hearing from him in the near future.
Meanwhile what can we do, if anything, to help? Well, if you can - go to Israel to demonstrate your support. Just by being there you will be doing something of consequence. If you can volunteer there in some way that would be even more productive. If for some reason going to Israel is not an option then you can:
- pray for the welfare of the State of Israel and its soldiers on a daily basis
- write letters to the editor explaining why Israel is in Gaza and how hard they try NOT to harm civilians
- Post positive Israel info on social media platforms
- make donations to the Friends of the IDF (FIDF) or some other worthy Israeli cause
- come to A.I. (as of Tuesday night) for an hour in either the morning or evening and study Torah with one of our S.T.E.P. (Summer Torah Enrichment Program) scholars.
Judaism teaches that the study of Torah has an amazing metaphysical impact that is far greater than any other mitzvah. Please take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to engage in an age old Jewish practice together with young enthusiastic minds. Torah study is not only an intellectually stimulating mitzvah, it has a mystical dimension that somehow helps Israel’s security as well as its wounded and war dead.
Despite the enormous trials and tribulations that our people have had to endure over the course of history, the power of Torah study has kept our people going and going and going.
G-d willing, peace will prevail in the near future. However, until then we need to do all that is within our ability to assist that process.
EVENTS
