Total Stranger

This Thursday afternoon I received a phone call from a Jewish businessman. He was visiting Boise and explained that he needed to say Kaddish for a yarzheit observance. I told him that we don’t usually have a minyan for Mincha on a regular Thursday, but we try to put one together for yarzheits and other needs. Due to the late hour, I was uncertain whether we would succeed (oh, how easy being Jewish is in Manhattan or Los Angeles…).   But we would do our best.

Within a short while, after emails and a flurry of phone calls (and thanks to great volunteers), ten Jews were gathered at the Chabad Jewish Center. It turns out that our visitor never made it to the minyan – but we still succeeded to pray Mincha together with a minyan.

After explaining to the assembled that I had not invented the story to get a minyan, I thought about the unique event. Here were a group of Jews who literally dropped what they were doing to help another Jew they had never met.

As I reflected on the amazing bond and supra-rational expression of love and belonging these individuals displayed to a total stranger (and to their Creator!), I began to realize the importance of the Torah’s admonition at the end of this week’s parsha, Ki Teitzei. The Torah instructs us never to forget the actions of Amalek, the nation that attacked the Jewish people on their journey out of Egypt.

The Sages teach us that the great sin of Amalek was the sheer Chutzpah that they had in attacking the Jewish people at a time when they were ‘untouchable.’ This, the Rabbis explain, stems from cold indifference. They simply shrugged off the success and miracles of the exodus from Egypt.

The Torah warns us never to forget, lest we too fall prey to such attitudes. It’s simply too easy to say, “Who cares?” We must always be moved to reach out to another. This is the quintessential Jewish attitude that I am humbled to witness. It is this spirit prepares us for the New Year.

Now, wouldn’t it be nice to pray with a minyan on an ordinary weekday evening? Anyone?