City Team Summer Event
Likutey Aharon (Rabbi Yeshua Lalum ) #17
Translation Original
And so the Torah commands us, "Do not harden your heart and do not close your hand" to the needy. If your heart hardens, your hand will close and you will see that your fingers are of equal length and then you will say to him (the poor person)-Go out and work like me! But do the opposite, open your hand and then you will see that your fingers are short and tall and this is how God created people, big and small, and this lives from that. [Translation by AVODAH]
על כן התורה מצווה "לא תאמץ את לבבך ולא תקפץ את ידך", אם תקשה לבך ידך תיסגר שאז האצבעות שוות ואז תאמר לו לך תעבוד כמוני, אלא כי פתוח תפתח את ידך, ואז תראה האצבעות שיש בניהן גדולים וקטנים, כך ברא הקב"ה בבני האדם גדולים וקטנים וזה חי מזה.
Suggested Discussion Questions

1) What is the main message that Rabbi Lalum is trying to communicate through the metaphor of a hand with fingers of different lengths?
2) Why might a hardened heart lead to a “closed hand?”
3) How might you apply Rabbi Lalum’s teaching to social change work?

Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 151b
תניא, רבי אלעזר הקפר אומר: לעולם יבקש אדם רחמים על מדה זו, שאם הוא לא בא - בא בנו, ואם בנו לא בא - בן בנו בא, שנאמר (דברים טו:י) כי בגלל הדבר הזה, תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל: גלגל הוא שחוזר בעולם.
It was taught, Rabbi Eleazar ha-Kappar said: Let one always pray to be spared this fate [poverty], for if he does not descend [to poverty] his son will, and if not his son, his grandson, as it says (Deuteronomy 15:10), “because of [bi-gelal] this thing.” The school of Rabbi Ishmael taught: It is a wheel [galgal] that revolves in the world. [Soncino translation]
Suggested Discussion Questions

1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What makes R. Eleazar ha-Kappar believe that poverty is inevitable? To what extent do you think he's right?