D'var Torah

Hamvaser – Nisan/Iyyar 5766

Growing Mitzvahs

One of the great delights in serving as rabbi of the Greenburgh Hebrew Center is watching the children in our nursery grow and thrive and become transformed. This week was one remarkable example that I’d like to share with all of you. This past Monday, on one of the first truly glorious days of spring, our four’s went shopping. For several months they had been saving their tzedakah money—pennies, nickels and dimes. Jackie Binstock, our nursery school director, exchanged weighty coins for more manageable paper currency ($160) as she, the four’s and their teachers walked to the Stop ‘n Shop to do some marketing. Upon arriving at the store, they were treated to ice cream in the break room, had a tour of the store (the first in a very long time for the store), and then traveled up and down the aisles as they purchased non-perishables for Food Patch, Westchester County’s food bank.

That Thursday (Rosh Hodesh Nisan), I was privileged to accompany the three’s and four’s on a field trip to Food Patch in Millwood, where each child carried in food, placed in on a cart, and then proceeded to have a tour of the warehouse facility. I cannot describe the warmth and delight of the moment. I write this immediately upon my return. It was another glorious day; daffodils were in bloom, forsythia was beginning to pop. More significant, though, was watching the faces of the children as they performed a mitzvah. Each was quite serious in putting a can of tuna, a box of cereal, a five-pound box of matza (there are Jewish poor in Westchester), beans, soup, and canned vegetables.

I could not help but think that we at the synagogue were fulfilling what we will recite some days from now, “All who are hungry, let them come and eat.” How I wish that more members of the congregation could share in such delightful moments. This next week, I relish sharing the model Seder with the two’s, three’s and four’s and some of their family members. I look forward to watching the faces of our dedicated teachers as they watch their children sing Seder songs, and I anticipate the joy of our children, as they grow ever stronger in their identities as young Jews.
Several weeks ago, on Tu b’Shevat, I planted parsley seeds with these same children. The parsley continues to grow. Soon it will go home to grace Passover tables of parents and grandparents. You and I are deeply engaged in the art of growing Jews and growing mizvot. Seedlings, saplings, young trees, ever-spreading branches and fragrant blossoms with the promise of delicious fruit still to come.

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