Ronald McDonald House
Last night I got an email confirming my volunteering gig at a local Ronald McDonald House. I start in a couple of weeks and I’m going to be a “Housewarmer” once a week for three hours. I could not be more pumped about this.
The quest to become a rabbi has prompted me to make a pretty thorough inventory of my life, my values, my commitments, and my priorities. One area where I feel I really come up short is in doing volunteer work. I’ve been studying a lot of scripture (I mean a LOT of scripture), studying Hebrew in order to study even MORE scripture, praying regularly once to three times a day, watching the “purity” of my diet, and getting better at doing less “work” on the Sabbath. I’ve been plumbing the depths of contemporary theology and drafting essays about the key challenges facing Judaism and the Conservative Movement today.
What have I left out? Helping people.
Rabbi Robert Kahn gave a brief drash during a recent weekday minyan where he explored the beginning of the Amidah, a litany of blessings, requests and prayers of thanksgiving Jews are invited to recite three times a day. The Amidah starts by acknowledging who god is: our God and God of our ancestors. Then it says what God is: great and holy, and some other stuff. Finally it talks about what God does, and the first of these is “doer of acts of loving kindness.” Rabbi Kahn’s interpretation: In this prayer, the first thing God actually DOES is acts of loving kindness…not creating, not plagueing, not smiting, but helping those in need of help.
It is said that studying the scripture is the chief commandment among all others because it leads to all others. It’s about time my study prompted me to act. Stay tuned for the further adventures of John in Ronald McDonald House.
BTW, and this busted my myth, too: Ronald McDonald House does not serve exclusively burgers and fries.
Tags: rabbi school, RMH, volunteering
August 29th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
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