Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Rebecca was chosen due to the power of her Kindness.
We need to use this power now, more than ever.
When I was 19 years old, I was privileged to hear a lesson from Nechama Leibowitz. The parasha was Hayei Sara. I remember her modest apartment in Jerusalem near the old central bus station. The iron cabinets that filled the walls and on which were arranged pages upon pages, the pages of the week’s parashah. And I can’t forget her lesson that dealt with the meeting between Avraham’s servant and Rebecca.
Nechama Leibowitz read the verses in a literal manner (pshat), but managed to describe Rebecca’s act of kindness in a new and surprising way:
Rebecca arrived that usual morning at the spring, to draw water for her family. And here she is approached by a man she does not know, a stranger. He asks her: “Please, let me sip a little water from your jar,” (Genesis 24:17) and she agrees, even though she has to take the heavy and full pitcher down from her shoulder and water the man. After drinking, she offers to draw water for his camels as well: “I will also draw for your camels, until they finish drinking.” (Genesis 24:19)
The Torah says that Abraham’s servant had ten thirsty camels, and that they walked for many days from Canaan to Haran. An average camel can swallow up to 100 liters of water. And Rebecca watered them all: “until they finish drinking.” (Genesis 24:19)
How many times did she have to go and fill the jugs until the camels finished drinking?
Remember that there was a separation between the well and the trough, so that the drinking water would not be contaminated by the animals. Despite the difficulty, she is not lazy.
“Quickly emptying her jar into the trough, she ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels.” (Genesis 24:20)
Rebecca’s diligence and quickness are reflected in the words ותמהר and hurry, ותרץ and run. And does the foreign man move to help her?
“The man, meanwhile, stood gazing at her, silently wondering whether God had made his errand successful or not.” (Genesis 24:21)
From Nechama Leibowitz’s class I learned that Torah states in every possible way, that Rebecca was chosen because of her qualities. The measure that particularly stands out in her is the measure of kindness or חסד. What is this kindness?
Poet Natan Zach writes:
“We all need kindness, we all need touch.
To acquire tenderness not with money, to obtain it through touch.
To give without wanting to take, and not out of habit.”
According to Natan Zach, kindness is something we all need. It creates tenderness and contact between people.
The measure of kindness was Rebecca’s measure, and it is also the measure that most characterizes our people. You just have to look around.
It’s an amazing thing, that after the trauma and shock we suffered on the 7th of October, people react in this way.
People provided varied support for others: fundraising, organizing hot meals, supporting agriculture and the economy of the damaged businesses, helping the families of the victims, volunteering with the evacuees and much more.
Performing kindness instills in us anew the belief in the goodness of the human heart, and in the ability of each and every one of us to multiply the goodness around us.
This mutual devotion strengthens and reveals the true powers that we all have: Rebecca’s power.
SHAVUA TOV FROM SCHECHTER
Tamar Kadari is a senior lecturer for Midrash and Aggadah at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. She received her PhD in Midrashic literature from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at The University of Pennsylvania. In 2009, Dr. Kadari received a grant from the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) to head a research group preparing a critical edition of Song of Songs Rabbah. Her research interests include biblical women in the eyes of the rabbis, aesthetics and beauty in rabbinic literature and literary readings of midrash. Dr. Kadari is also a sculptor whose work has been exhibited in galleries in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
