Share Your Bread - 2

Anyone who has explored the Teshuva movement discovers that people are thirstier for Torah knowledge than they previously realized. Even if you meet people who are disinterested, don’t give up or become frustrated as there are many others who are thirsty and it is important to always be aware of them. There are many stories that illustrate this point.

The bottom line is that if a person makes even minimal efforts to bring people closer to Hashem, he will see and hear the great thirst. He will feel good about his efforts and redouble them to bring people closer to their Father in Heaven.

It’s worth thinking about the fact that whereas there are so many people thirsting, there are so few people worrying about them. There are many loyal believing Jews and each one needs to do his part. I want to say from the depths of my heart to anyone who has a true heart, anyone who has a desire to please Hashem:

Please, let’s change our usual approach. Change how we think about serving Hashem. We are very self-centered, we worry about our own service of Hashem – the Torah, the prayer, and the Mitzvot that we and our children perform. We need to grow and expand our minds and take our beloved bothers into our care. Children who have no parents who are hungry and thirsty and whose souls are fainting within.

Don’t allow our satiation to cause us to close our ears to our starving brothers. We can’t be satisfied, fat, and well irrigated with our storehouses full of Torah and Mitzvot while our brothers are shivering rom the cold, fainting from hunger, and wallowing in the mud of foreign culture, full of haughtiness and shouts of lust. Just as any person would be full of disgust if he saw a fat and wealthy person ignoring someone destitute who is fainting from hunger, or one who is living in the lap of luxury who ignores his poor neighbor, the same is true when it comes to spirituality. Spirituality works the same as physicality. Hunger for spirituality is no less real than that for physical things. This may seem to be a harsh way to speak and to hear, but the truth needs to be said. May Hashem help us to fulfill his will with a complete heart.

This is what we have discussed earlier about the need to change from the attitude of a single, individual, cell, to that of being part of a large body. This change leads to a feeling of mutual responsibility that is strong and deep. We all share the same fate and the idea that a person can only be concerned about his own improvement is faulty thinking. It is like the proverbial man who pokes a hole in a ship. It is certainly the concern of everyone on board and they all need to immediately concern themselves with his actions.