Opening Our Eyes to the Needs Around Us
The pandemic has brought many changes to my daily existence. I wake up and go to my computer, to Zoom into Kol Emeth’s virtual Morning Gratitude group. Meanwhile, Scott takes Orli, our 5th grader, to Hausner, where she learns with a mask on all day and sits 6 feet away from her fellow students. Scott comes home, makes his coffee (no more coffee and free lunches provided by his workplace), and we all disappear into the spaces where we will work and do school virtually for the day. It has been a challenging year in many ways, but also a year of growth and creativity and strengthening.
As we prepare for Purim this week, I want to focus my attention beyond my own home and hamentaschen. Our fellow congregants, Kara and Miguel Sanchez, have helped open my eyes to how differently others in our community are experiencing the pandemic. Miguel is originally from Mexico and Kara teaches Spanish at Stanford, in addition to being a beloved Torah for Tots leader. For many years, the two of them have made themselves available as resources to the Latino community in Mountain View, helping people navigate the immigration system, the public school system, and many day-to-day challenges. What they are seeing now though is a community in much deeper crisis, suffering disproportionately from COVID itself and facing economic devastation.
Many families who had been able to rent small apartments are now doing anything they can to avoid becoming homeless. For some, that means forgoing food and medicine so that they can pay rent. For some, it means unofficially subletting their bedroom to another family, leaving their own family to live on a couch in the shared living room. How do kids do school from home when their home is a room with 10 people?
Kara and Miguel told me about a single mom they helped, who was living in a single room with her 3 teenage daughters. Kara and Miguel helped get the girls computers for virtual school. Then the family all got COVID and the mom’s cleaning income dried up. They had a falling out with their landlady, and they needed to move out abruptly. After a few nights in a hotel, they decided their best option was to drive to Chicago and move in with relatives there. Kara and Miguel met up with the woman and her daughters the night they left. They gave them winter coats and $1000 of their own money, hoping it would somehow make a difference. Three weeks later, the woman texted Miguel. They had settled in with her brothers in Chicago. She had gotten a job as a nighttime janitor. And she was using Kara and Miguel’s money to buy a used car. She felt like they could live again.
I often hesitate to give people money when it seems like the problems are so much bigger than my little bandaid can fix. Kara and Miguel are showing me that sometimes emergency help can be the difference between life and death. Sometimes, some money for food or medicine or rent can turn someone from devastation to hope.
As we approach Purim, our tradition is asking us to be agents of hope, to look beyond ourselves and fulfill the mitzvah of Matanot L’Evyonim, giving to those in need. Our Tikkun Olam Committee is highlighting an inspiring local organization called WeHOPE as one way that we can make a difference.
WeHOPE provides emergency food and shelter for homeless and food-insecure people in our area. They also operate a fleet of mobile hygiene vehicles that provide free showers and laundry services to people living in RVs, cars, and on the street. And, they operate HOPE Health Mobiles, trailers where people can get case management, medical assessments, and access to the internet.
I encourage you to check out the WeHOPE website , where you can find out more and donate to our Kol Emeth Matanot L’Evyonim effort for them. In addition, we have organized a Laundry Detergent and Underwear Drive, to provide these much needed items for WeHOPE’s shelter in East Palo Alto and for their mobile shower and laundry trucks. You can purchase items on our Amazon Gift List and they will be delivered directly to WeHOPE. At checkout, just choose WeHOPE / Alicia Garcia’s Gift Registry Address. It took me about 60 seconds to purchase underwear that will go directly to people who need it.
We are taught that Purim has 4 primary mitzvot:
1. To hear the Megillah. Join us Thursday night, February 25, at 7pm on Zoom for Megillah reading and an original “Under the Sea” Purim Shpiel, written by Sarah Miller and performed by Kol Emeth kids. We’ll read the megillah on Friday morning as well.
2. To enjoy a Purim Seudah, a festive meal on Purim day.
3. To send Mishloach Manot, gifts of food to fellow Jews.
4. To give Matanot L’Evyonim. The sages teach that every Jew should give to two individuals a minimum of the amount of money for a meal, or the equivalent in food or other items.
Most years, Matanot L’Evyonim has been last on my Purim priority list. This is a year that it needs to be first. There is so much need around us, if we open our eyes. Please contribute in whatever ways you are able.
Happy Purim and Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Graff
