From the Rabbi
Postcards from After-the-Holidays
November 2005

More survivors are being challenged by living conditions in India and Pakistan following last month's massive earthquake than those who lived in the regions affected by the tsunami of December 2004. Many more. And in the remote mountains of Kashmir, winter is fast approaching.

Our relatives, relatives of our friends, and many others in yet another state in this country, are once again standing in line for essentials, sent out of their homes by the raging winds of another hurricane. The costs of repairing the infrastructure in many counties are recited in numbers that cease to represent comprehensible figures.

As I write this Sukkot has just ended. A fragile shelter still sits in my yard, roofed by its now dried-out stalks of bamboo, and framed by lattice walls and a blanket. But I'm looking out from a warm kitchen, filled with all the "mod-cons" we need (and a few we truly don't). As the thermostat settled down on 60 degrees F, I finally gave in and put on the heat. Winter approaches here, but we are comfortable.

For every degree of comfort you set in your home, what degree of comfort can you provide to another family, neighborhood, community? What can you do yourself; what can we do together? Write back from your home, and let me know.

Looking out from the bimah on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, I was delighted and bemused by the sight of four school-age boys, politely paying attention for two solid hours of the morning service, before they scampered off to the children's activities, or home.

Like all of you who are parents, I struggle on an ongoing basis with how to provide my own children with access to our heritage, whether it's in the realm of liturgy, holiday observances, or Hebrew language and literacy.

As with adults, children feel comfortable with who they are when, among other factors, they are surrounded by adults who feel that way, too! Modeling, whether through sitting through services ourselves - and asking questions - taking course, reading books about Judaism, and generally looking at your heritage in a concrete way, is a powerful force. Grounding our children begins with standing somewhere ourselves.

FOR DONATIONS TO PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF
We just responded generously, as a country, to a devastating natural disaster on the Gulf Coast, even as the official response was compounded by the exposure of political and logistical frailties in our emergency management systems. At this time, we might also be legitimately confused, or cautious, about the best way to contribute to earthquake relief in Pakistan, given the complexity, at least to us across the world, of their internal politics.

This information comes from the spouse of a rabbinic colleague, who works with Dr. Jamal J. Elias who provided the below background:

The Association for the Development of Pakistan website, http://www.developpakistan.org/Default.aspx?tabid=149, urges you to donate to the Edhi Foundation. This is a charity that was built from the ground up by Abdul Sattar and Bilqis Edhi to be a grassroots service and emergency relief organization which has expanded out of Pakistan into other nearby regions. It has for some time been the most effective and most trusted service and charity organization in Pakistan. They have established networks and facilities in the earthquake-hit areas and those adjoining them.