Alef: The NEXT Conversation

Shaken Up

by Rachel Druck

Having practically grown up in Manhattan, it becomes easier every day I pass a homeless person, or ignore a plea in the subway, to pretend that homelessness and poverty do not exist steps away from my front door. Even worse are those days when the complacency is so ingrained, that their presence does not even register in my consciousness. It was only when I volunteered at the Ansche Chesed Homeless Shelter through Hadar that I was shaken out of my complacency. Suddenly, the homeless people I saw on the street could have been Joe, the man I met the night before, who helped me move my heavy cot at 6am with a smile, or Rob, who I had to shake awake so that he could be on time for his job. I realized that being a member of a community meant seeing the humanity of all members of that community.

It is not coincidental that right after the weeks of atonement leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we celebrate the holiday of Sukkot by leaving our comfortable homes and going out into huts. We are not allowed to fall into the trap of sinning and repentance; immediately after that repentance our lives need to be shaken up. We need to understand how we are connected to the world, and how fragile our lives are.

Rachel was a Yeshivat Hadar Fellow during the Summer 2009 session and is a Year Program Fellow for 2009-2010. To find more of her work online, click here.

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Between Sukkot and Thanksgiving be on the look out for other stories on food issues in our own communities.  Learn more about Harvest to Harvest.

Photo by Aoifa city womanchile, licensed under  Creative Commons.

Posted by Emily.Comisar@birthrightisraelnext.org, Thursday, October 1st, 2009, 3:15 pm, Harvest to Harvest.

One Response to “Shaken Up”

1. Andres says:

   October 2, 2009 at 1:02 pm

   Very true and insightful post, Rachel. I have periodically had a similar experience; however, I only wish that there were some way for us to be ever aware of how tenuously precious life is, and the interconnectivity of all. I find that all too often this sentiment disappears shortly after that millisecond when we are “shaken out of our complacency” and then it becomes business as usual once again.

   Although Yom Kippur creates this heightened sense of the urgency of change, Sukkot never seems to evoke the same sentiment. Perhaps your wonderful kavanah here will inspire me to view the zman simchatenu as more than just an excuse for fall camping.