Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Becoming Pesach


BS"D

Friends and Family,

As Passover approaches, I am contemplating the awesome responsibility which freedom affords us. As G-d parted the sea, he invited the Israelites to leave a world of emptiness, and partner with him in creating a world of ideas and ideals. As they entered an ostensibly open desert, the future was a blank page; the story was theirs to write. Through their actions, their commitments, and their relationships they were able to ultimately leave an empty desert, and enter a land flowing of milk and honey. In each and every generation, it is our commitment to renew and reinvigorate this question: how can we create a world of ideas and ideals? How can we realize a world without slavery? How can we cultivate a society that encourages everyone to leave Egypt?

This past January I was given the amazing opportunity to travel to El Salvador with the American Jewish World Service. AJWS is an amazing organization that helps fund local non-profits in the developing world. AJWS works to support those in the developing world who have identified their own Egypt, and proposed a clear and defined path towards their promised land.  The organization I spent 10 days working with saw the need to diversify crops, and create a more sustainable farming experience. AJWS has helped them realized this dream, and I know, with our help, it can do the same for so many more. 

In this light, I invite you to join me in supporting AJWS. Lilla Watso, a famous Australian social activist, once said, "If you have come here to help me, you are wasting our time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel often taught that, indeed, our very liberation hinges on the liberation of all of humanity; there is no freedom unless there is complete freedom. Join me as we help this world escape from Egypt, and realize a more G-d fearing, loving, and complete world. 

Any amount is very welcome and appreciated; it is simple and should take no more than a minute to give. Please feel free to share this opportunity with others. 

http://action.ajws.org/site/TR?pg=fund&fr_id=1110&pxfid=5420

Thank you for much!

With great love and admiration, and wishing you a zissen (sweet) pesach,

Jordan David Soffer