Open all the doors
Parashat Re’eh
Rabbi Noa Kushner
August 6th, 2021
1.
Consider, said Rabbi Dostai, son of Rabbi Yannai
How the holy one, blessed be the name, is different from a King of
flesh and blood.
Because when we dare to approach a regular King to give even the
most spectacular gift
We don’t know if our present will be accepted
And even if our gift is accepted, we don’t know if we will be received
If we will be able to see the face of the King
But the Holy One, blessed be the name does not act in this way
When one of us gives to someone in need, no matter how small the
gift, no matter how seemingly insignificant the gift
When the gift is received
We always always see the face of the holy one, blessed be the name
in the face of the recipient
In other words
If, this Elul, as the high holidays are approaching
You want to look into the face of God?
Then give something to someone who really needs it.
2.
In this week’s Torah there are three verses that very close together
But they each seem to be saying very different things
The first one says,
אֶ֕פֶס כִּ֛י לֹ֥א יִֽהְיֶה־בְּךָ֖ אֶבְי֑וֹן
“There shall be no needy” [1]
It is so pure and prophetic and ideal
It is also the title of R. Jill Jacob’s excellent book on Jewish social
responsibility
And it sounds like the Torah, all right
It is so clear that immediately we wonder why we need any other verses after that?
Why couldn’t the Torah just stop there?
“Keep the laws and there will be no needy.”
Enough!
And, by the way, we could make a very legitimate teaching just by
quoting this one verse
We could say that the current situation in our city is impossible
That it cannot be so!
That it goes against our Torah
And we have said that
But I think, possibly, the reason the Torah keeps going is that
“There shall be no needy”
While breathtakingly clear,
Doesn’t give us a lot of room to maneuver if, well, we find there are
those who need.
“There shall be no needy” seems to leave something out,
Namely,
What if there are needy? What if there are thousands? What if they fill our streets? What then?
3.
Do you know why there is no blessing before we give money or
sustenance to someone who needs it?
Because, say the hasidim, when we’re giving to someone who has
already had to humiliate themselves in order to ask for something
That is not the time to sing a prayer or wash our hands in
preparation of giving or say a psalm,
Not that I am against any of those things (!)
Get to know me
But when we are involved in giving of this nature
And the recipient’s hunger is made evident, plain by their asking, by
their having to ask
The only thing we do is to give directly and immediately
Without wasting a moment, or adding one word before [2]
In fact, a story is told about a Rabbi who was known for giving
Late one cold, winter night, at midnight, the rabbi was sleeping in his bed.
There was a knock at his door and the rabbi’s student went to answer.
“Who is it?” the student asked, through the door.
Immediately, the rabbi bolted up in bed and started yelling:
“On a cold, late night,
if someone is desperate enough to come to my door,
don’t waste time by asking who it is!
Open the door! Open the door!” [3]
4.
In fact, the hasidim teach
That the act of tzedakah / righteous giving
Will help us to open whatever other door there is in front of us
Whatever it is we are struggling with
tzedakah / righteous giving widens all the entrances and opens all
the doors
It is considered the the beginning of all beginnings [4]
The key, the code that helps all the doors of the world to open
5.
So far we have thought about giving and needing in regards to
people who lack housing, food
And as well this is the shabbat where we begin to make blessings
and acknowledge that we are right before Elul
The month that leads to high holidays
In this month of Elul, in addition to thinking about giving food,
sustenance, we might also think about
Giving to those who need love in our houses, in our relationships, in
our communities
We might consider
How we ourselves need a great deal, we all have great rivers of need
One of the most powerful stories I heard at a shabbat table in
Jerusalem was of a young man who was raised as an ultra orthodox
hasid. And now that he was on his own he had decided to pray in a
more progressive community. With trepidation, he told his father. His
father asked him, is there a mechitza? (Is there a separation during
prayer between men and women?) “No,” said the young man. “Well,”
asked his father, “In this place, can you cry?”
You see, it is not one or the other, giving or taking
it is not on the street or at home — it is all of it, all of the above
Of course we can’t just involve ourselves with ourselves and ignore the tents
But nor can we go into the streets and without attending to what is happening in our souls
If we pretend the needs of the hungry and unhoused and our spiritual needs are completely disconnected, this is a serious
mistake
If we’re going to take our society seriously and our role in it
We must understand we will need to attend to both
6.
I told you there were three verses in our Torah that seem to
contradict each other
The first, prophetic one, “There shall be no needy”[5]
But now, the second one, just 3 verses later,
כִּֽי־יִהְיֶה֩ בְךָ֨ אֶבְי֜וֹן
“When there are needy among you…” (!) [6]
“There shall be no needy”
“When there are needy”
Torah!
But maybe we could think about these as representing the ideal and
the real—
That is,
We know Torah is not just interested in presenting abstract visions of
aspirational goodness
I mean, look at Genesis! Everyone’s a mess.
So, maybe, along with the ideal, we have the real here:
כִּֽי־יִהְיֶה֩ בְךָ֨ אֶבְי֜וֹן
“When there is a needy person among you….” [7]
Because here, helpfully, Torah admits what we know to be true
And then offers how we should respond:
Don’t harden your heart and don’t shut your hand [8]
And if “Don’t harden your heart” sounds familiar, it should, because
that is what Pharaoh did to himself again and again, until there was
no going back
So Torah is saying in the most visceral, immediate way possible
When someone needs something from you
Don’t be Pharaoh
And don’t shut your hand
And in fact, unusually
In the next, most beautiful verse
Each of the three verbs are repeated twice
כִּֽי־פָתֹ֧חַ תִּפְתַּ֛ח אֶת־יָדְךָ֖ ל֑וֹ
“You must open, yes open your hand to them [him]”
(Like a door)
וְהַעֲבֵט֙ תַּעֲבִיטֶ֔נּוּ
And pledge, yes pledge
דֵּ֚י מַחְסֹר֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר יֶחְסַ֖ר לֽוֹ
Enough to meet the lack that they are [he is] lacking [9]
If this is not the verse for Elul I don’t know what is.
Give until she says it is enough, take until you are satisfied
Open your hands, yes, open them
It’s practically a song.
7.
And I really, believe me, I really wish we could just end here
We already have the prophetic voice, “There shall be no needy”
And we have the voice of reality, “When there is a needy person among you”
We even have poetic instructions for how we are meant to rise to the
occasion, opening our hands to give
Trusting in God, the face of God we see in the person who needs
something in front of us
But, there is a third verse,
just four verses later
And I cannot hide it
It says,
כִּ֛י לֹא־יֶחְדַּ֥ל אֶבְי֖וֹן מִקֶּ֣רֶב הָאָ֑רֶץ
“There will never cease to be needy ones in the land” [10]
I almost cannot bear this verse.
Not to mention now there are
Three truths we are supposed to hold at once
Which really feels like the historic moment we’re living in
Like juggling all the time, like mixing ingredients that won’t ever combine:
“There shall be no needy”
“When there is a needy person”
“There will never cease to be needy people”
Why? Why can’t we just know that a needy person is a distinct
possibility and leave it at that? Isn’t that enough?
What is this verse teaching us?
I really turned it over in my mind. And I think it is here because of
what God says to us immediately after:
God says,
עַל־כֵּ֞ן אָנֹכִ֤י מְצַוְּךָ֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר פָּ֠תֹ֠חַ תִּפְתַּ֨ח אֶת־יָדְךָ֜
[There will never cease to be a need], “This is why I am commanding
you to open, yes open your hands.”
This is the first time this word “command” is used in these verses
So now, in other words, our responsibility, whether it is clear and
obvious to us
Or we don’t want to deal with it all
Whether we perceive the need as great
Or we just want to get on with our day
Whether we want to sing the song of opening our hands
Or feel like clenching our fists and punching someone
Whether we want to avoid being Pharaoh at any cost
Or whether we kind of feel like being like Pharaoh today
Now, this responsibility is no longer ours to determine because we
are commanded
And further, we give regardless of whether we think the need is just
about to end or that this need will go on forever
Regardless of what we think ultimate outcome will be!
Torah takes the ultimate outcome off the table
We’re given three opposing outcomes back to back as if Torah is saying to us,
“Forget about the outcome! The outcome is not up to you!”
Torah just commands us to respond
Just takes the decision to give out of our hands
8.
And do you know how many times we give?
Sifri teaches from this verse that we give hundreds of times [11]
We give and give and give and give until we don’t think about it any longer
Until giving is as second nature as checking your phone (yes, I said it)
Or, better, breathing
We give and give until we don’t think about it anymore, it is just what we do
We give until the habit of assessing the person in front of us goes away
And we remember that it is not up to us to decide if they deserve it or not
We give until we remember that we are not the Holy One, Judge of
all Judges, we are not the one who has the responsibility of deciding
the fate of another or the fate of homelessness
Rather we are just the conduit
With the responsibility of fulfilling the request
Fulfilling the command to do now, this minute
Immediately, humbly, incompletely, inadequately today
Just like we show up for a funeral or a shiva, we just do it
That’s how we open our hands
“Don’t think about it,” says God,
“Don’t rationalize it or hesitate or equivocate or project
You won’t regret it. [12]
I command you to be my open handed people so
Just create the opening, create the beginning
Open all the doors and don’t look back.”
Deut. 15:4
R. Simcha Bunim, (Itturei Torah, Torah Gems, p. 243)
R. Isser Zalman Meltzer was known for always answering his door. Itturei Torah, Torah Gems, p. 244
Likutei Moharan, Part II 4:2:4
Deut. 15:4
Deut. 15:7
Deut. 15:7
Deut. 15:7
Deut. 15:8 / see Fox translation
Deut. 15:11
“You shall keep on opening your hand for him, even a hundred times…” (Sifri Re'ey 116).
Deut. 15:10
