In the early, clear and sunny Saturday morning on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, life seems beautiful.
As I walk out onto the sidewalk in front of the co-op building that serves as our second home, people hurry by on their way to nearby Central Park .
In the community of rising professionals, countless millionaires and a few billionaires, the inhabitants of all ages use the park to exercise dogs, walk, run, push strollers, skate, bike skateboard along the vehicle free roadways. (When not walking, I enjoy sitting on a park bench and watching as they go by.)
And then as I walk up the street towards the park, I come upon an incongruous sight.
Lined up in front of the Steven Wise Synagogue and sitting on its steps are a couple of dozen persons mostly ranging from their forties to old age, awaiting the Saturday free breakfast hand out.
What especially catches my eye is a ten year old African American boy standing stoically next to his father and gazing down the street in my direction.
“What must the boy be thinking,” “How humiliated he must feel.” “How unlikely it is that he will ever have the chance to maximize his talents.” All of this rushes through my mind.
What to do. I have a loose $50 in one of my pockets (more in another) and a thought is to quietly hand it to him as I pass by. But that could add to his sense of shame.
(In retrospect I should have done it, especially since we Jews are so commanded to bestow charity to the poor on the Sabbath., witness the free breakfast.)
But even so, that would have been a palliative, not a solution. And what about the others, some of who were in a deplorable physical condition? What was I to do about them?
I got the Shabbat wake up call. Life may be beautiful for many of us, but there are people out there …especially children… who never get a break.
Why should they not receive at least an adequate amount of food, decent shelter and an opportunity for as much quality education as they may merit?
Every once in a while we need to confront hardship and unfairness to rekindle our sense of responsibility. And then we need to act to improve the world, redoubling our commitment and increasing our efforts.
