Letters to the editor

Dear Editor:

I hope you publish this letter as it is an important public service announcement. I was just driving on Avenue U recently and almost got into a car accident because of a reckless driver who made an illegal U-turn (he was also distracted from talking on the phone). When I confronted the frum driver, he started yelling at me as if I was in the wrong! I understand that we are all in a rush and that frequent red lights and the new, lower speed limit are making driving incredibly frustrating in our area, but please, drive responsibly and courteously!  You may arrive at your destination five minutes later, but it’s worth it to prevent an accident and make a good impression on other drivers. Remember, we need to share the roads, so please don’t speed, make U-turns, block traffic and text while driving.

Alex Lapin

Dear Editor:

I thoroughly enjoyed and 100% agree with Rabbi Gil Student’s column titled  Charity for the Non-Working Poor, which was featured in your May issue. We have an obligation to give tzedakah to the poor, needy and disabled, but this does not translate to those that opt to not work for various religious or personal reasons. I think it is great that we have so many organizations within our community that assist in charity, but it would be much better to have organizations that help with job search and job training.  As the famous Chinese expression goes:”Give the man a fish, feed him for a day, teach the man how to fish, feed him for life.”

I am curious to hear Rabbi Student’s view on kollel organizations that subsidize learning. Is this something l’shma that we hard-working people should invest in, or is this another form of charity? We need to redefine what constitutes as destitute in our community. Kol HaKavod to Rabbi Student for speaking out.

B. Lisker

Rabbi Student’s Response:

Thank you for reading and taking the time to respond to my article. We need to balance reality with compassion. We don’t want anyone — certainly not innocent children — to starve while we tell them to look for a job. We need to feed the hungry and also provide job training and other assistance so they can progress in life. Kollel is entirely different. Supporting kollel students is not (primarily) tzedakah but a different mitzvah of hachzakas haTorah. The Torah is a “tree of life to those who uphold it.” By supporting a kollel, you are supporting the study of Torah. Aside from the importance of the Torah learned, we all benefit from the kollel students who later become our rabbis and teachers (and Jewish Echo columnists). I leave it to your rabbi to advise you on the specifics of prioritizing your charity dollars. (Let me add parenthetically that I Googled the Chinese proverb you quote about feeding a man a fish versus teaching him to fish and learned that it is probably from an 1885 American novel, not from China.)

Thank you, Gil Student.