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Pirkei Avot is a compilation of ethical teachings and moral principles through which we can learn to live more righteously. Volunteers from the Saturday morning Torah study have provided their personal interpretation of selected passages for our on Friday/Saturday spiritual moments.

“The world stands on three things:  Torah, good works, and kindness to others” (1:2)

Interpreted by Steve Berman

While we read Torah every day, we are reminded that it really is the “Book of the Law.” And Torah not only contains the Ten Commandments, but instructs us to “do good” and bestow acts of kindness on others. Perhaps that’s why the Hagbahah holds the Torah high before the last person recites Haftorah.And we are also reminded of God’s good works that have been bestowed upon us. 

So it is with Gemilut Chasadim – Acts of kindness that we perform for others.  Whether it’s Bikkur Cholim (visiting the sick) or Nachum Avaylim (comforting the mourners), it is our responsibility to the world to care for those in need. Perhaps a poem in “I Never Saw Another Butterfly", written in the Terezin Concentration Camp in 1941, says it all:

Birdsong
 
He doesn’t know the world at all
Who stays in his nest and doesn’t go out.
He doesn’t know what birds know best
Nor what I want to sing about,
That the world is full of loveliness.
                                      
When dewdrops sparkle in the grass
And earth’s aflood with morning light,
A blackbird sings upon a bush
To greet the dawning after night.
Then I know how fine it is to live.
 
Hey, try to open up your heart
To beauty; go to the woods some day
And weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if the tears obscure your way
You’ll know how wonderful it is
To be alive.

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