If you are reading this, you are most certainly called upon to be a leader in the Jewish community. Leadership means to take responsibility for the “Jewish welfare” of our brothers and sisters. Our ability to inspire and empower other Jews is not dependent on our level of knowledge but rather on the extent we are willing to share the Jewish gifts we have with others.
Consider the following story of a Jewish activist (Rabbi Krimsky) in the time of the Iron Curtain:
When in college, I was privileged to travel to the then Soviet Union for the purpose of assessing the needs of the Jews there and providing them with some Jewish knowledge and even some Jewish items. It was merely months prior to the Iron Curtain falling.
My itinerary took me to Kiev, Leningrad/St. Petersburg, Riga and Moscow. In each city, I snuck in a list of contacts and made my own schedule by contacting these holy Jews behind the Iron Curtain. One such man on my list was Sergei in Kiev. He invited me to a Hebrew class he was offering in his home. It was June and the weather was very pleasant. He was wearing jeans and a tank top.
We communicated in our vernacular of a few dozen Russian words, lots of hand signals and his stalled English. He had invited a dozen or so Jewish friends to learn Hebrew. He was literally teaching them the first letters of Aleph Bait (Hebrew alphabet). I was inspired watching these Soviet Jews, who had been forcibly separated from their heritage, begin the baby steps of return.
After about 47 minutes, Sergei had taught them aleph through chet the first eight letters of the Aleph Bait. We joined the group for some kvass – a Russian type of beer – and we chatted and schmoozed. After everyone had left, I asked Sergei the question that was bothering me since the class had ended: why did he stop at chet and why did the class end after 47 minutes?
I shall never forget his answer. It inspires me and drives my work to this day. Sergei looked me in the eye and said: “I returned from Moscow yesterday. I learned the Aleph Bait there. My teacher only taught us through chet. That’s all I know. I can’t teach them any of the letters after that.”
Cherish what you got and share it with others, Shabbat Shalom!