Some weeks, finding a natural connection between the Torah portion and our work at Federation takes some digging. This week, it didn’t. Parashat Re'eh gives us one of the Torah's clearest calls to care for those in need: "If there is a needy person among you... do not harden your heart or shut your hand against your needy kindred. Rather, you must open your hand" (Deuteronomy 15:7-8). The text doesn't leave room for hesitation or misinterpretation; it commands generosity as an obligation, not a suggestion, going so far as to warn us against even the thought of withholding help (15:9-10).
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Yet, while preparing for this week’s column, I came across a profound question raised by rabbinic scholars that ensured it would be the theme around this week’s narrative: if Gd commands us to care for the needy, why doesn't Gd simply do it directly? Why leave something this important in the fallibility of human hands?
One perspective reframed the question. Imagine trying to help a struggling family, you mail a check, arrange a grocery delivery, set up a bank transfer, even try to deliver a meal personally, but in every attempt the system fails somewhere along the way. Your intention to help was real, but intention doesn’t overcome a lost letter, a delivery to the wrong address, a crashed app, or a flat tire; the system must work for the intention to succeed. Gd created the world with enough resources for everyone but made us the delivery system. When we engage in the philanthropic process, we become a critical step in a system already set in motion.
This is precisely where the Federation system becomes so vital. We exist to be a delivery system that works, one built specifically so that a person's wish to give doesn't get lost, mishandled, or dropped along the way. Through our annual community campaign, our partner agencies, and through the direct services housed right here in Greater Naples, we make sure that when someone in need opens their hand, that help actually arrives. We coordinate, we vet, we follow through, so generosity doesn't depend on chance.
Re'eh reminds us that the mitzvah of caring for others was never meant to be theoretical. Federation's job is to make sure it isn't. Because we are Stronger Together.
Shabbat Shalom.
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