Blog

We all know the famous proverb: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. 

This is the motto that has been motivating the Refugee Relief Committee (RRC) for the past 4 years. It's likely you have heard us talk about this fabulous committee in recent months, as its leaders Janie Fishman & Leslie Walden just received the Temple Sinai Ner Tamid Award, in celebration of all their work. 

One of the latest endeavors of the RCC is providing support to Afghan women who have just graduated from an entrepreneurial sewing program and they are starting their own sewing business to support their families. We are currently working to purchase and collect sewing machines for these women. We have already secured 4 sewing machines, but need 9 more. 

Another way the committee is living out this proverb is by teaching English and providing classroom support to Afghan women who never had the opportunity to attend school. 

Participating in these projects are our anecdotes to the suffering we see in our world.  It's easy to make ourselves callous, to turn off our empathy gene,  so that we can go about our day and do what we need to do. But when we see something, or hear something or have an experience that shakes us to our core, it breaks down our shell and we are no longer able to turn that empathy gene off. This is what happened when the RCC  visited the Stewart Detention Center 4 years ago; all those involved in the RRC could no longer turn a blind eye. 

When we see or experience something disturbing, how do we respond? Are we able to turn our empathy, our sadness and frustration into action?   

My prayer this Shabbat is that when we see ugliness, brokenness, and despair, that we are able to morph the negativity into something good.  Instead of avoiding the needs of others, our tradition charges us to find the people in our world who need us. This is the way we let God in. This is the way we find our purpose in life. 

The infamous Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks said that empathy is “seeing the world through someone else’s eyes, entering into their feelings, and acting in such a way as to let them know that they are understood, that they are heard, that they matter.” When we do this, we not only heal others, but we heal ourselves. 

If you are motivated by the sewing machine project, or by our tutoring project, reach out to me and Janie at strief@templesinaiatlanta.org. And if this is not the project that stirs your heart, find the project that does. Because when you find that thing you care about, that motivates you, that helps you see the humanity in others, your life will change forever.

Shabbat Shalom