November 5, 2011 | 8 Cheshvan 5772

More than twenty years ago our congregation was among the very first congregations in the nation to participate in “Operation Isaiah.”

Doris Goldstein led this effort that encouraged congregants arriving at the start of Yom Kippur to bring non-perishable food items for the benefit of those in need. Over the years, our Operation Isaiah efforts have continued. Sometimes they have been more successful than others.  

In recent years, Nancy Canter Weiner has re-invigorated those efforts.  

Last year during Operation Isaiah we collected over 7200 pounds of food for the Atlanta Community Food Bank. And this year we collected over 9300 pounds of food! Imagine that! In one year we increased the amount of food we collected by more than one ton.
We also collected more than two times the amount raised by any other Atlanta congregation this year. What a tremendous success! We owe Nancy our sincere gratitude.

Also a warm “Yishar Kochechem” – “Way to go” to all of our congregants who participated so magnificently in Operation Isaiah this year. Yes, it was quite an accomplishment!

But before our arms start to hurt from patting ourselves on the back, let’s take a deeper look at the meaning of what we accomplished. 9300 pounds of food… It takes about one and a quarter pounds of food to equal a single meal. At that rate we will provide approximately 7500 meals.  Do the math. A family of four will consume that food in less than two years.

This year, as in past years, we were joined by hundreds of congregations and Hillels on college campuses throughout North America. Imagine the thousands upon thousands of pounds of food those institutions collected! We really did accomplish quite a feat! But need still dwarfs our efforts.

Listen to these facts:

Every day 925 million people throughout the world go hungry. By the end of this calendar year six and a half million children will have died from hunger-related illness just this year. 2011 will not have been exceptional in that regard. Six and a half million children will die next year too…and such devastation will continue to plague our world until we can change this incomprehensible situation.

It will be some time, probably a long time, before we do make a significant difference. But if enough people come to understand the causes of hunger and commit to act, we will change it.

We can begin to do so today. Throughout the United States this Shabbat is being observed as “Global Hunger Shabbat” sponsored by the American Jewish World Service.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the American Jewish World Service [AJWS], it is a non-governmental organization [NGO] helping people in developing countries to learn how to produce their own food. AJWS knows that chronic hunger results from people’s inability to control their own food sources. It provides support to communities to gain such control. But why do so as the American Jewish World Service? You know the answer. As Jews, we are obligated to help those in need. AJWS strives to remind us of that obligation.

Some of you are familiar with Maimonides’ Tzedakah Ladder. The Ladder assigns higher value to acts that empower a person in need to provide for himself. That is why the highest rung, the most praiseworthy action, is to help a person create the means to care for himself and his family. It is the highest rung not only because it reinforces the individual’s self - respect but because it fundamentally changes his life moving forward.

However our tradition is not only aspirational. It recognizes the all-encompassing pain of those who are chronically hungry.

Listen to Rabbi Nathan:

Anyone who depends on another’s table, the world is dark to him, for it is said, in the words of the Book of Job, “He wanders about for bread—where is it?  He knows that the day of darkness has been readied for him” (Job 15:23).  Babylonian Talmud Beitzah 32b)

Rabbi Nathan feels the pain. Rabbi Nathan sees the invisible shroud that blurs the individual’s recognition of his own humanity.

So what can we do?

Obviously, from the numbers I have shared with you, the problem is overwhelming! So, like anything that is potentially overwhelming, we can only take one step at a time. Let’s begin with immediate needs. It’s pretty hard to teach a community how to control its food resources when its people are starving.

Today more than 13 million people in East Africa are starving. We can reach out to them with much needed aid. You can do so by sending a contribution to CARE.  Information in today’s Shabbat bulletin insert informs you how to can do so.

Second - We can learn more about the work of the American Jewish World Service and support it.

Third - We can educate ourselves by signing up to receive a daily e-mail from AJWS between now and Thanksgiving that outlines Eighteen Days of Action, each suggesting a simple action we can undertake to fight global hunger. Please refer to the special insert to learn more about these possibilities and others.

In this week’s Torah portion we are introduced to Abraham, our Patriarch. Next week we will read about his act of hospitality toward three travelers, messengers of God.

A midrash suggests that Abraham frequently welcomed travelers for a meal. When they had completed their meal, Abraham would urge his guests to bless God in words we recognize among the opening words of Birkat Hamazon:

“Baruch Eloheinu She’achalnu mishelo” – “Blessed is God of whose bounty we have partaken.”

Abraham’s prayer reflected a spiritual truth – God is the source of our bounty. But God alone does not provide for all.

We must be God’s agents…using the tools the Holy One has given us to help people develop the resources they require to share in that bounty.

May we soon begin that holy task.

Amen.