The Cardinal's Pushke...

Top of the evening to all...

It has been a while since I have written.  I hope that all of you are doing well.

Jennifer and I are presently attending the Rabbinical Assembly in New York City.  We have discussed the future of the Rabbinical Assembly as rabbis take on roles well beyond the pulpit.  We have discussed the new, tour de force Shabbat siddur that has just come out.

We also had a plenary with His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan from the Archdiocese of New York City.  The Jewish community of New York City has always had a good relationship with the Archdiocese.  Some years back, John Cardinal O'Connor came to the installation ceremony of the New York Board of Rabbis.  He gave a gift of a red yarmulke to the incoming president.  Cardinal Dolan sits on the advisory panel for the Jewish Theological Seminary, where both Jennifer and I received our semikhah.  It was a wonderful discussion about religious leadership in a secular age.  Cardinal Dolan suggested to us that while we live in an age of secularism, that did not mean that all secularists were anti-religion.  His thoughts were further that on some level, way more people than not, even amongst the secularists, seek a language of spirituality.

As a gift, the Rabbinical Assembly gave him a pushke - a tzedakah box - a charity box for those with no Yiddish or Hebrew background.  It had an inscription.  It was lacking one thing.

My father-in-law has always said that a pushke should never be empty.  On the one hand, one might think that we should seek to empty it at every chance.  On the other hand, tzedakah should be a constant, never allowing us to rest on our laurels.  As such, the minute it is emptied, we should put money into it.  Knowing my father-in-law's thoughts (and agreeing with them), at the end of the plenary, I walked over to the Cardinal's pushke and put a dollar into it.  He appreciated it.

Have a good night everyone.

R/SCG