I Opinion A MIX OF IDEAS Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us . George Cantor's Reality Check column will return next week. Editorial Hunger Pangs T wenty years ago, Rabbi A. Irving Schnipper and some vision- ary friends started a small kosher food pantry in donated office space on 10 Mile Road near Greenfield in Southfield. Its purpose: to help feed hungry, needy Jews in Metro Detroit. The organization assisted 250 families each month that first year Today, two decades, several moves and about two miles later, Yad Ezra continues its mission on a much larger scale. Today, the food pantry is located in a large warehouse on 11 Mile Road in Berkley, and gives food, health and household items monthly to 1,600 local families. Yad Ezra predicts it will distribute 850,000 pounds of food this year to 3,500 impoverished Jews. Thirty-five hundred impoverished Jews — that number certainly flies in the face of the stereotypes of outsiders, and our own vision of our community and ourselves. Thirty-five hundred is 4.8 percent of the estimated Detroit area Jewish community of 2005. Today, 3,500 is as much as 5.8 percent of our shrink- ing Jewish community — one of every 19 or 20 Jews in this area. Yad Ezra is a blessing. It provides direct relief to the needy. While some of its clients could scrape by without it, others are fully dependent on its monthly assistance package. They, literally, would be making choices between food, heat and medicine without Yad Ezra. No one is living large with the agency's help. It's a lean machine, with five full-time employees, a core group of 100 volunteers and a changing cadre of 13-year-olds who volunteer to fulfill a bar/bat mitzvah service requirement and leave with a deepened understand- ing of the economic extremes in the Jewish community. A major part of the agency's goal is to protect the dignity and identity of its many clients. Those seeking its help Yad Ezra is a blessing. It provides direct relief to the needy. Dry Bones OUR PRIDE AND JOY IT'S HARD, DRY, AND SOMETIMES STICKS IN YOUR THROAT under very trying cir- cumstances are treated with respect. As many of our Jewish agencies have learned, especially over the last few years, yesterday's donor could easily be today's recipient. Last weekend, Yad Ezra distributed Passover packages to its clients with the help of the Moies Chitim organization and Jewish Family Service. The annual effort provides clients with matzah, wine and other kosher-for-Passover items needed to observe the holiday. When Yad Ezra was created in 1991, DryBonesBlog.com its clientele had heavy representation from the elderly immigrant population streaming into the United States from the former Soviet Union. Some of those folks are still being helped today. But after two decades of service, Yad Ezra has become a lifesaver for the broader community that created it. ❑ Liberate Yourself This Passover New York A t the core of everything people do at the seder and even in the preparations for it stands the desire to celebrate being liberated from whatever oppresses us and those about whom we care. The task of the seder is to help each of us see ourselves as ones who have been liberated from Egypt, which in Hebrew is mitzrayim, or tight spot. The practices of Pesach are meant to help us experience and empathize with the journey from slavery to freedom, from the tight spots in our lives to the expansive feeling of liberation. Here are 10 simple practices, each of which is inspired by Passover traditions, to help you liberate yourself and others, too. Pick a small symbol of whatever is hold- ing you back and throw it away. Declare that for a specific period of time, say a week, you are simply not going to accept the presence of that problem in your life. That's what we do when we burn a symbolic amount of chametz, leavened products, on the morning before the holi- day begins. 34 March 25 • 2010 iN Next, treat yourself to some- questions traditionally asked thing new that makes you feel at the seder, and limit your fresh — a garment or anything worry to that short list. Start else, which, when worn, used, by addressing them, just as we etc., makes you feel like you start by addressing the classic deserve a fresh start and are four questions at the Seder. getting one. The importance of Now, take a moment to iden- that feeling is what motivated tify some things that are going the practice of wearing a kittel, well in your life. Where do you a simple white robe or jacket at see the first signs of new posi- Rabbi Brad the seder. tive potential emerging? They Hirschfield As you prepare for the holi- need not be big to be real. Just Special day, make sure that your plans as we take a bit of green veg- Commentary include doing something nice etable symbolizing rebirth and for somebody else. It need renewal early in the seder, take not be big, but there is no better path to stock of what's good as part of the process empowerment than serving another per- of liberating yourself from what's not. son in need. That's one of the reasons why As we recall our ancestors' tough times in many homes people fill each other's in the past with bitter herbs, soften that cups at the seder. experience by dipping them in sweet And whatever you do, don't go it charoset. Consider where you see others alone. Just as we welcome "all who are wrestling with challenges in their lives and hungry" to our seder tables, identify peo- think about what you could do to lighten ple who could share in your own process their burden. What abilities do you pos- of liberation and invite them to be part of sess that could brighten someone else's your circle of support. life? Articulate a limited number of chal- Find stories of people who have over- lenges, no more than four, ala the four come similar challenges to the ones you face and share those stories with your circle of support. If it worked for others, it can work for you. That's how we use past experience as a resource in building a bet- ter future. Now, make a list of the people and things for which you can be grateful no matter how jammed up your life may otherwise be. Make sure to say "thank you" to those who make the good stuff happen. Gratitude is liberating. Articulate your dreams, even if you have no idea about how to make them come true or any rational expectation that they will. If there was they would not be dreams. And once you articulate them, you are that much closer to making them real. This process, whether followed this coming Monday night or at some other time, is a road map to the liberation we all seek and a source of power to help oth- ers find the liberation which they seek as well. Try it and see for yourseffl ❑ Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is the author of "You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right" and is the president of Clal-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.