D’var Torah – Sept 13

Shabbat Shalom! I hope this finds you all well.

It’s a Friday. You’ve had a long week by anyone’s measure. You just want to go home, relax and decompress. As you pull into your driveway and get out of your car, you see your elderly neighbor eyeing an enormous box with a refrigerator in it that’s taller than you. Look, you just wanted to go inside and rest, but now there’s a voice that’s telling you to go over and help. So you go.

“Oh hi,” the neighbor says,

“Hi. Do you need any help with that?” you ask.

“No, no, no- I don’t want to bother you,” they reply.

“It’s all good,” you say reassuringly.

“Well, if you insist, sure.” the neighbor says, with a smile of gratitude on their face.

And you lug that heavy, cumbersome refrigerator up an awkward flight of stairs, huffing and puffing, muttering under your breath all the while, and even breaking a decent sweat too. You just wanted to go home, but now there’s this.

After you put the fridge in place, your elderly neighbor doesn’t hand you a check, cash, or a gift card. They simply smile that wonderful smile and say “Thank you, I couldn’t have done this without you.” At that moment you know that if those exact circumstances arose again, you would do it just the same.

And why?

Because there was this voice that told you that it was the right thing to do.

In this week’s parsha of Ki Teitzei*, we are given two simple, yet mighty commandments:

“If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your peer.”[1]

“You shall do the same with that person’s donkey; you shall do the same with that person’s garment; and so too shall you do with anything that your fellow Israelite loses and you find: you must not remain indifferent.”[2]

Being moral, virtuous, kind, and upstanding is often inconvenient, time-consuming, difficult, grueling, unforgiving, and – more often than not – goes unnoticed, unrecognized, and unappreciated. Yet we are still obligated to do them because these are the signs and qualities of a tzedek/tzadeket – a truly righteous person.

Bizrat HaShem, with God’s loving guidance and help, may we always be motivated to do the right thing whether we are rewarded for it or not.

Wishing you a Good Shabbos and a great weekend.

Bivrakha,

From the desk of: Rabbi Aaron Stucker-Rozovsky

Beth El Congregation | 520 Fairmont Ave, Winchester, VA 22601

(540) 667-1889 (office)