Good morning and Shabbat Shalom!
Thank
you all for coming to my Bar Mitzvah, whether you came across the country or
across town. It’s been a really
difficult week here on the East Coast and as I am putting the finishing touches
on my speech, many of us are still without power, electricity or even
water. Going through such a difficult
time has made celebrating my Bar Mitzvah with you all extra special and I’m so
happy to see all your faces here and relieved to see that we’re all safe and
sound.
As
you may know, it’s a tradition for the Bar Mitzvah to discuss the day’s Torah
portion in their speech and relate it to a personal experience. Many of you may also know that my Little League
team won the city title this past summer (if you can think back to a time
before Hurricane Sandy). I was fortunate
enough to play an important role, pitching in some of the games and playing
third base in others. But in one key situation in the final game, a leadoff
batter from the other team hit a sharp ground ball in my direction at third and
the final hop surprised me and it hit off my glove, causing the runner to be
safe at first. It may have been one of
my only errors all season, but it was the first in a key spot. I felt really badly and a little embarrassed,
everyone was watching. But, just at that
moment, some of my teammates and my coaches gave me some words of encouragement,
telling me it was OK and that I would make the next play.
Well, no other balls were hit in my
direction for the rest of the game, so I had to wait until the next season, my
first in Babe Ruth, to make that play.
But what’s important is that the sensitivity of my coach and teammates
helped me to get over the bad feeling of that moment. Some might think that being sensitive to
others doesn’t really make much of a difference in the end, but the one who
needs the caring usually feels much better, and that makes a huge difference. I know from this instance and from many other
experiences in my life, just how important it is to be sensitive and caring to
the feelings of others.
I also know this from my Torah portion. Today’s portion, Vayera is all about focusing
on the needs of the others – of people we know, to be sure, but also, and
especially, of the needs of people we don’t know, of even complete strangers.
For example, at the beginning of the
portion, Abraham and Sarah welcome a couple of strangers into their tent.
Abraham uses his whole household to welcome them and the actions he takes lay
the groundwork for the mitzvah of Hachnasat
Orchim, or hospitality. My family
and I have personally experienced this sense of hospitality as so many friends
and people in the community have offered us their homes and services during
this week as we and so many others are still without power.
For Abraham, the guests turn out to be
angels, and their mission is to tell Abraham some great news, that he and Sarah
are going to have a child. Sarah’s
reaction is full of shock, saying that both she and Abraham are too old to have
children. In reporting what Sarah said,
God actually tells Abraham a little white lie about how Sarah had reacted when
she heard the news, saying that only Sarah was too old. This is another expression of sensitivity to
the feelings of another. By this
example, the Torah is saying that sensitivity is important to God, so it should
be important to you, too.
A third example of sensitivity in my
portion is when Abraham argues with God to save the people of Sodom from
destruction. He didn’t even know the
people of Sodom, but he really went to bat for them pleading with God to spare
their lives, doing his best until God made him to realize that there weren’t
even ten righteous people in the whole city.
All of these examples from my Torah
portion really provide some meaningful life lessons. The next time someone on my team makes an
error, or misses a free throw, or blows a layup or strikes out, I’ll know that
I can play an important role. My job is
to say, “Don’t worry about it, it’s OK” while at the same time not making a big
deal about it myself. I’m sure that if
Abraham were out on the field next to me, he would do the same.
I’ve also learned some things about
sensitivity from my mitzvah project. I
have been volunteering at Stamford Animal Rescue, where I organize the pet food
pantry. The food is delivered to
families in the area to help defray the cost of feeding their pets. Sensitivity is needed here because the people
that the food is delivered to might feel embarrassed that they need help to
feed their pet. It was a great project, and
I urge everyone here to take a look at this organization. I am very
happy to tell you that the baskets of pet food on the Bimah today and a few
bags that were too big to fit in the baskets will be donated to STAR. These families will especially need
additional food following the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
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