Thursday, November 13, 2014

CAN A HOMELESS PERSON BE THROWN OUT OF A SYNAGOG?

CHABAD ORG GIVES A GOOD JEWISH ANSWER  Web site and full article.


"The solution is quite simple: Provide Joe a place, either in the shul or elsewhere, to store his things. Find other ways that he can be helped without embarrassment.

When parents bring their children to shul, and the children ask what the Torah is talking about, what does the prophet mean, they can introduce their children to Joe. They can show how the shul helps him out, without embarrassing him, as a peer and a friend—because we are Jews, and this is what we were chosen to teach the world.

And when they ask, “Where is the most special place in our shul?” you can tell them: it is not the seat where the rabbi sits; it is not the bimah where the Torah is read; it is not even the aron that stores the Torah—even though the Torah is very holy and guides us in all our ways. The most special place in our shul is the little cubby we gave to Joe to store his things.

King David said in his Psalms, “Let the world sit before G‑d.” The Midrash tells that he was complaining to G‑d. “Why did You create inequality in the world?” he said. “Why did You make some poor and some rich, some wise and some dull, some joyful and some sad? Make a world in which all are equal!”

And G‑d replied with the second half of the verse: “Who, then, will guard kindness and truth?”

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