Share Your Bread - 1

“Share your bread with the hungry”

Kindness with those who hunger and thirst for spirituality

Thank G-d for not abandoning the Jewish people. The Teshuva movement and the inspiration among believers to teach Torah continues to grow. But it is still only a drop in the bucket and needs to turn into a river flowing with spirituality. Every Jew needs to feel the responsibility to adopt into his home and heart a Jew lacking Torah knowledge, one of the beloved children of Hashem. This is our responsibility to Hashem, to our hungry and thirsty brothers, to the Jewish Nation, and to one’s own integrity. As the prophet says:

Share your bread with the starving, and poor oppressed people bring into your home. When you see a naked person, cover him, and do not ignore your own flesh. Then your light will shine like the morning, and your healing will occur quickly. Your righteousness will precede you and the glory of Hashem will take you in. Then you will call and Hashem will answer, pray and He will say “Here I am.” (Is. 58:7-8)

Look carefully at his words. In our times there is almost no one who is starving for bread. For candies and luxuries perhaps, but not for a slice of bread. Thank G-d bread is plentiful today. But this prophecy is written for all generations, ours included. The prophet Amos already taught us that there is indeed a serious famine today – a famine of the word of Hashem. “Not a famine for bread, nor a thirst for water, but to hear the word of God.” (Amos 8:11) This is a terribly upsetting famine, with awful ramifications, because the root of all evil and suffering is the lack of the light of God. “And there will beset him many difficult sufferings and he will say on the day ‘Because my God is not within me, all these calamities have befallen me.’”

This is not a normal famine. In a normal famine people know what they are lacking and seek it. They extend their hands asking for bread. But in this famine people don’t know what they are seeking and what is troubling them. They don’t know what to look for and how to express what they want. Those who love Hashem, who have experienced the beauty of Torah, need to think about the fact that they couldn’t possibly live without Torah, without Tefillin, without Shabbos, without Family Purity. They couldn’t possibly survive one day without engaging in something holy because the soul needs this light more than the body needs air. This is true for all Jews. Imagine, then, how some are suffering due to the lack of light, the lack of a life of holiness. This should awaken them to the plight of their brothers and to this prophecy that was written for all times, to awaken them to share their bread, the Torah in its holy light.

As each holiday approaches, our hearts are excited to greet it, to receive its inspirational light. If certain constraints create a situation in which the holiday passes with no feeling, no light, the heart hurts and feels that something is lacking. The holy soul of each Jew feels the approaching holiday as if it is a prisoner who can see through the cracks in the door people who would free her. She cries like a dove, wants to hold him, to enjoy his light. That is how the Neshama feels before every holiday, before each Shabbat. Anytime it can engage in something holy or perform a Mitzvah. It cries painfully when prohibited and impure things enter its house. But these are silent cries, buried deep within the heart. Cries to which we need to listen, to feel, to empathize, and to awaken to bring light to them.