Ha'azinu 5773: In the midst of our festive season . . .

Sunday evening, our lush, colorful, joy-to-the-senses festival of Sukkot begins.  We will gather in our Torat Yisrael Sukkah (erected last Sunday by a great group of three generations of TY members; to be decorated this Sunday morning by our Yeladon and Cohen School students!).  With Jews all over the world, we'll recite blessings thanking God for this season of joy and for the natural world that sustains us.  

While we are literally counting our blessings on Sukkot, a growing number of Rhode Islanders are struggling to do with less and less.  This morning, I attended a meeting of the steering committee of The Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty.  We were greeted with sobering statistics recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau.  

My friends, this is a reality on our doorstep, our tradition, our God, expects us to act on behalf of our neighbors who are barely (or falling short of) providing food, shelter and health car for themselves and their families:

More than 1 in 5 (47,127 / 21.9%) of Rhode Island's children was living in poverty in 2011.
In 2008, 34,816 children in Rhode Island (15.5%) were living in poverty.

In 2010, Rhode Island's child poverty rate of 19.0% was ranked 6th in New England and 22nd nationally.
In 2011, Rhode Island ranked 6th in New England and 27th in the country for child poverty (where 1st is best).

The Providence Journal reported on Friday, September 21st that in August 2012, 175,590 Rhode Islanders used the federally financed plan, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.  That's a nearly 6% increase from August 2011.

This is a season for compassion. 
This is a season for action. 

I ask you to join me in organizing ourselves as a community to explore how me might bring some small relief and modicum of hope to our struggling neighbors:

1.  Please bring non-perishable foods of all types when you come to our Sunday morning Cornerstone Dedication Ceremony.

2.  Please bring non-perishable foods of all types when you come to Pizza in the Hut on Tuesday evening.

3.  Please contact me directly if you are interested in being part of a TY team to explore further what kind of projects we might want to pursue in the realms of food, shelter or other types of basic needs or in education and training pathways out of poverty.

On Yom Kippur morning, we read the following passage from Isaiah as part of the haftarah:
"Share you bread with the hungry, and take the wretched poor into your home;
when you see the naked, clothe them, and do not ignore your own flesh.
Then shall your light burst through the dawn
and your healing spring up quickly.
Then, when you call, God will answer; when you cry out, God will say: 'Here I am.'
If you banish the yoke from your midst; the menacing hand, and evil speech,
and you offer compassion to the hungry and satisfy the famished creature--
then shall your light shine in the darkness, and your gloom shall be like noonday."

Amen.