Use the Soap

By Rabbi Mona Decker, Kehillah Chadashah

A rabbi and a soap-maker once went for a walk together. The soap-maker said to the rabbi: "What good is Judaism? After thousands of years of teaching about goodness, truth, justice, and peace, after all the study of Torah, and all the fine ideals of the Prophets, look at the trouble and misery in the world. If Judaism is so wonderful and true, why should all this be so?" The rabbi said nothing. They continued walking until he noticed a child playing in the gutter. The child was filthy with soot and grime. "Look at the child," said the rabbi. "You say that soap makes people clean, but see the dirt on that youngster. What good is soap? With all the soap in the world, that child is still filthy. I wonder if soap is of any use at all?” The soap-maker protested and said, "But, Rabbi, soap can’t do any good unless it’s used!" "Exactly!" cried the rabbi. "So it is with Judaism. It isn’t effective unless it is applied and used!"

One of the values at the core of a Reconstructionist approach to Jewish communal life is USING THE SOAP! In other words, we have a commitment to both Tikkun Olam, re-balancing and repairing the world, and Tikkun Ha-Nefesh, leading a healthy, meaningful, individual life.

In their book, Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist. Approach, Rabbis Rebecca Alpert and Jacob Staub, connect the Reconstructionist emphasis on Judaism as an evolving religious civilization with Tikkun Olam: "Jewish civilization is a means to a greater ends: the fulfillment of the individual, the responsibility of individuals to treat others as reflections of the divine image, and the responsibility of each community to seek global justice and peace among all communities." The Jewish values of tzedakah (justice, social, economic), helping to create a sustainable co-existence for all peoples on earth and gemilut hasadim (deeds of kindness), such as our social action project as part of our Shabbat service for International Jewish Social Action Month (JSAM) have much to bear upon the social concerns in our world.

As a community, we are proud to have participated with the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF) in International Jewish Social Action Month during the Hebrew month of Heshvan (October 19th-November 17, 2010). This effort, launched 4 years ago by a global network of young Jewish leaders, and now part of the yearly Jewish calendar, has seen a remarkable response from a wide spectrum of Jewish religious groups and communal organizations including Israel and around the world. The purpose is for every group or individual to mark JSAM in a way that is most meaningful to them and their community. Kehillah Chadashah participated by collecting non-perishable foods and making Thanksgiving food baskets for the patients and families of Community Hospice. In fact, this is a community wide project throughout Jacksonville with companies such as Merrill Lynch, and BellSouth participating.

Judasim presents a vision of shared responsibility for Tikkun-Olam and Tikkun Ha-Nefesh. That vision mandates, as it is said in Deuteronomy( 15:4): "There shall be no needy among you." And we can think of "need" in wholistic terms: physical, emotional, and spiritual. And that shared responsibility is at the core of our vision as a community.

Social action, Tikkun Olam is more than something we do at Kehillah Chadashah, it’s integral to who we are! That integration is echoed in the words of Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, “Don’t merely expect to find or to believe that life is worthwhile; make it worthwhile. Don’t merely see life whole; make it whole. Not knowing which should come first to improve ones self or to improve the world, we end up doing neither. Actually, the only way to improve the world is by improving one’s self, and the only way to improve one’s self is by improving the world.”