Shaarei Kodesh is committed to participating in repairing the world, tikkun olam, through social action programs.

Our next Tikkun Olam event – Gleaning on 2/26/12

“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corner of thy field, neither shall you gather the gleaning of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor, and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 23:22

Please join us as we  fulfill the mitzvah of gleaning and feeding the poor.

When: Sunday, February 26, 2012

Where: Lake Worth, FL

Time: 8:00 – 12:00

This is a great opportunity to get community service hours. This is not recommended for children under the age of 9. We suggest that you bring a hat, water bottle and sunscreen.

Please contact the office at your earliest convenience, 561-852-6555 or office@shaareikodesh.org as we have paperwork that must be filled out and returned prior to the day of gleaning.  If you have any questions you can also contact Heidi Aronson at heidiaronson@yahoo.com.

Past Tikkum Olam Programs:

Rabbi Baum’s message to the congregation after our blood drive (2/17/12)

I love it when we begin our week with a great mitzvah! On Sunday morning, we had our first ever blood drive at Shaarei Kodesh. Our work began months ago when one of our board members, Stacy Dorb, called our local blood bank to arrange for a bus to come to our parking lot. A couple of weeks ago, we had our future bar/bat mitzvah children call every single family in our congregation to ask them to donate. I am proud to say that we had fifteen people donate blood (fifteen pints of blood) last Sunday. To put things into perspective, one pint of blood can save up to three lives, or forty-five lives in our case. I was amazed, as I was giving blood, by a woman who brought her grandchildren on the bus. She told them to look at me and she said, “Do you see that person? He is donating blood that your grandfather uses when he gets blood transfusions. He is helping to save his life and to make sure that he is around for us.”

If you could not make it to our blood drive, and you are one of the lucky few that are eligible to donate blood, I urge you to do so. Thank you to those who fulfilled the great mitzvah of donating blood, and to those who helped support our blood drive by advertising and making calls.

Rabbi Baum’s message to the congregation the week after our gleaning project:

We have a had a great week here at Shaarei Kodesh which began with a really amazing event:  our first Shaarei Kodesh gleaning event.  It is a mitzvah to feed the poor, and as we know (or may not know), there are many hungry people in Palm Beach County.  Our scripture and our Rabbis gives us many examples of how God provides for the poor and those who are vulnerable in the world.  As I have stated before, it is our job to be God’s partner in this holy work.  Therefore, Shaarei Kodesh, along with other synagogues and community centers of different faiths, gathered together on Sunday morning to pick tomatoes.  As we learned from the organizer of the event, the tomatoes that were left on the vines from Mecca Farms were going to be plowed, and therefore wasted, to make room for next year’s crop.  Our task was to pick as many tomatoes as we could which would then be donated to food banks and homeless shelters in Palm Beach County.  Shaarei Kodesh had 22 volunteers show up and we helped pick 3,520 pounds of tomatoes!  We all had great fun, and as the book of Psalms says, Ivdu et Adonai B’Simcha, we served God in happiness.  I would like to thank Heidi Aronson for helping organize this great event and we look forward to another day of gleaning in the spring.

A picture slideshow by Smilebox