Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye

In the Shuk there were two merchants. They both sold the same things, but that was the only way they were alike. One was dishonest, the other was a person of great integrity. One took advantage of his customers, and the other never would. One said terrible things about the other, while the other refused to speak a bad word.  

The son of the honest merchant could not understand how his father was eternally unbothered. How unfair it seemed for the other man to prosper, as their family struggled. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. “Abba, we should fight fire with fire! Run the business a bit more cutthroat! You are a good man! We deserve to live as well as he does!” 

And the merchant looked at his son and said “My dear child. If my zechut, my merit, was so worthless to me, that I would throw it away to be like him, did I ever have it in the first place?”  

In our current days, where the hatred of Israel and Jewish people seems more and more accepted, there is a very normal and rational mentality that can arise. I have felt it often myself in the last 300+ days since October 7th. A mentality that says “If the nations of the world do not want us, if they do not like us, if they in fact, hate us… then I should be free of my responsibilities to them. I don’t owe them anything.”  

But as the merchant says to his son… if our good name was so worthless to us that we would throw it away for a few sheckles, just to prove a point, what merit did we have in the first place?  

In the days we live in, it is more important than ever to hold ourselves to our ancestral standards. We are not abandoning our mission to be a light to the nations, nor our obligation to acts of hesed and tzedakah. This is who we are, it is what we stand for, and no amount of hatred, intimidation, lies or bias can take that away.  

This summer our Holy Blossom Temple community has regularly volunteered to feed and clothe the struggling and unhoused on our streets with Ve’ahavta. You can sign up for a shift with friends, family, and community members here. We have reserved spots for Holy Blossom Temple Members on the Ve’ahavta van through October.  

Every day, dedicated volunteers bring food to the Temple and distribute it anonymously at our tiny pantries on the corner of Bathurst and Dewborne. When you come to Holy Blossom; you can leave shelf-stable food at the Janis Rotman Tzedakah Centre directly inside the front doors. It never goes to waste.  

Out of the Cold will begin again in just a few months on November 7th. We are always looking for new, and returning, volunteers to help us welcome our guests during the coldest months of the year. Our Out of the Cold isn’t just a hot meal; there is live music, games, coffee, camaraderie, and more. If you’d like to get involved, email [email protected]. 

Finally, in the coming months, Holy Blossom will be launching a support group for Israelis who are newcomers to Canada, just as our community has previously provided for refugees from other nations. Thousands are still evacuated, and our community will be there for those who chose Canada as a home. If you want to be involved from the start, email me at [email protected].  

In the Talmud Yerushalmi, the students of Shimon Ben Shetach find a pearl in the saddlebags of a donkey they have just purchased for their rabbi. Rav Shimon was very poor and his students celebrated, this treasure would ease all his ills. Rav Shimon told them to return the gem, even though it was legally theirs, and his students could not understand why. When they returned the pearl to the gentile merchant, the merchant wept and exclaimed “Praises! Praises to the God of the Jews! Praises to the God of Shimon Ben Shetach.” 

And then they understood, that was all the treasure their Rabbi needed.   

Am Yisrael Chai.