Community Corner - Ben Cutter, Coordinator of Chesed and Community Engagement

Community Corner

A Community of Good: Mitzvah Day is Coming - Please Join Us!
Coordinator of Chesed and Community Engagement

A teacher and rabbi of mine, someone blessed with great wisdom and insight as well as a clever turn of phrase, once asked the following rhetorical question to a roomful of young Jewish adults: “Does God have hands?” Silence. “Well,” he urged, “Anyone? What do you think?”

Finally, someone raised their hand and said, “I don’t understand. We’ve been studying theology and have been talking a lot about how God isn’t a physical being in that way. So… what’s the answer?”

He paused, and then he held up his two hands – “Here,” he said. “These hands right here – they’re the only hands God has. Same goes for all of you.”

Valley Beth Shalom is someplace special – I don’t have to tell you all that. But the fact that we all know it doesn’t make it any less true. What I’ve seen over this past 12 months gives deep resonance to that simple statement. In two weeks, on Sunday, November 4, we will once again be putting our Jewish souls into action, doing good for our community, with our community.

Each year, the VBS Food Bank feeds thousands of people; our donations to SOVA continue to feed thousands more. The work of our community on Mitzvah Day 2017 produced hundreds of meals for school-aged children, Thanksgiving meals for foster families, letters of comfort and support to US and Israeli service men and women, and more. This in addition to all the incredible work done in our schools and our B’nai Mitzvah students to make Jewish values a part of their lives.

As Jews, we are commanded to do many things – we are commanded to learn, we are commanded to pray, and we are commanded to do good in our world. I hope we will have many opportunities to do good together beyond the bounds of Mitzvah Day itself, including the continued amazing work of the VBS Homelessness Task Force, the launching of the Teen Mitzvah Initiative, a series of service programs designed for teens and their families, and, we hope, a reinvigorating of our monthly opportunity to serve meals to the homeless through our work with shelters and missions in the community – but for now, let’s start here, Sunday, November 4, Mitzvah Day 2018 – I can’t wait to see you there!

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