A Guest Post by Lakewood Yid
Tonight, there was a parlor meeting in Lakewood for "Shuvu". R' Noson Scherman said over a story from R' Matisyahu Solomon. On one of his trips to Baku (in the former USSR), a boy wearing a cross (father was a gentile, mother was a Jew) and no Yarmulka approached him for a blessing. R' Solomon responded - well, I can't bless you without a Kipa.
Um, uh, I don't have one, the boy replied.
R' Solomon removed his own Yarmulka (of course, he kept his hat on), placed it on the boy's head, and warmly blessed him.
The next day, this boy walked into the Yeshiva with R' Solomon's Yarmulka on his head, ripped off his cross, and tossed it into the garbage can. When they asked him - what's up? He said he was so moved by the Rabbi giving him his own Kipa, he decided that these are the people he wants to be with.
Friends, I've retired some time ago from Jblogs, but I still lurk around every now and then, and its the same old story. The continuous Gedolim bashing, the MO's bashing the Charedim, and the fundamentalists returning fire.
Instead of giving up our Kipa's to each other, we are wasting our time and energy scrutinizing how large or small the other guy's is.
Child abuse problems? Let's help create awareness and support those who are doing something about it. Instead of faulting our leaders, let's write them that we support their leadership and we would like them to publicly take a stronger stance.
Violent Kannoim acting like thugs? Let's contrast that with positive actions. Let's see posts about good deeds which inspire us to make ourselves better people.
Mocking fundamentalists who disregard science isn't going to make anyone a better person. Rejoicing at doing away with "magical" Torah explanations won't either make anyone kinder to a poor person.
Blogs have proven that they carry the voice of the people, and can even lead to the arrests of the bad guys.
Friends, let's grab that power and utilize it for the positive. Let's seek out people who don't have a "Kipa" (or Middos, or awareness, or whatever), and hand them over ours. To the Jewish guy with the "cross" (or the hashkofos we disagree with etc etc), let's give our warmest "blessings". Let's show how we are ALL brothers and sisters not just in theory, but in practice too.
The next time there's a knock on the door and behind it stands a brother with an outstretched arm, let's not look at what type of Kipa he's wearing. Let's bring him in, and give him one of our own. Let's not THINK why he doesn't have a job. Let's THANK God that we have one.
We now have the means of getting messages across at a lighting fast speed. Someone at one end of the world puts up a post, the next day, everyone worldwide is buzzin about it.
Let's make positive use of it. Let's utilize this forum to spread the greatness, the positive, the kindness of Judaism that has survived amid such intense persecution.
Let's focus on giving ourselves up for others no matter what shortcomings we perceive they might have, and may God continue to provide us with his gracious blessing no matter what shortcomings we ourselves have.
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