a story of giving

I was taught a very insightful lesson by Rabbi Eve Ben-Ora regarding the giving of charity and how the giver should always remain anonymous but the receiver of the gifts should stand tall and not be just another person in need but a person indeed. Rabbi Eve told her students a story about a man who would walk by the room of a person with very little possessions and even less to eat. This man would peak in the window and as the poor man slept, the wealthier of the two would place a shekel (an Israeli coin) under the pillow. In the eyes of the wealthier person it seemed important that he remain anonymous, but the recipient of the gift be recognized and instead of being chastised be acknowledged. This gift giving happened for many weeks, until one day the poorer man feigned sleep and when the wealthier man placed the shekel under the pillow the poorer man awoke and said it is you, it is you who has helped me, finally I find who is the donor for such a wonderful gift.

And then Rabbi Eve explained to the class that once the wealthier man was found to be the giver of the gift, the entire intention of taking attention away from the act and now making it about the actor diminished the intent and made the wealthier person seem to be more important than the act of giving.

That story has stayed in my soul since the first time I heard it. When I walk down the streets of West Hollywood or Santa Monica or Venice Beach and see countless people asking for money, carrying a sign, sleeping on the sidewalk, I say to myself in a quiet whisper I see you, I know you exist. I struggle with how much money should I give, do they want money, and end my litany of you are not invisible with the adage "there for the grace of God go I..." I want the people who walk the streets, who sleep on the streets, who use the streets to survive to know that in fact they are not anonymous, but real.

It seems it is too easy to make the people you don't know, seem unimportant and un-necessary. They become a burden as if their lack of food, health care, education, employment is their own fault. It seems if those we pass on the street are just shadows without form or figure. We need not consider them anything more than an annoyance and no one special.

The current Republican/Tea Bagger set of politicians wanting to dismantle programs like Planned Parenthood, ACORN, Same-Sex-Marriages look at those around them, those they feel are not like them as just pests on the skin of humanity. Women's reproductive rights only mean the right to an abortion, families on welfare are just lazy people not wanting to work at all, seniors who worked their whole lives are users who think that what they put into the economy equals any kind of entitlement in return now that can't work, Gays and Lesbians can't love like heterosexuals, and if you don't believe in the correct God you have no legit religious beliefs at all. The people they dismiss as not like them are anonymous and anonymous people are useless, users who have little necessity in our nation.

It seems that anyone deemed less than me, unlike me is not worth identity or indulgence. I am important because I seem to think I have more than you, so I must be better than you. I will lump all your needs into needless because I cannot take the time to know who you are and how you live.

Rabbi Eve expressed to her students that giving is good. She went on to say that we give because we see. We give because those we give to, in God's eyes are an extension of ourselves.

I am so confused at the mindset and manner of the many out there who see nothing beyond their own selfish and insincere lives. I don't understand how the good of one is not as important as the good of all.

I am not sure that to fix the deficit the only thing we have the power to do is take away, deny and destroy. Why is helping considered so bad?