Rabbi's Message

This week’s Torah portion, Hayei Sarah, opens with loss: Sarah dies, and Abraham must honor her memory while securing the future. On the surface, the story is about death, but its true message is about sustaining life with dignity.

Abraham insists on purchasing the Cave of Machpelah at full price, conducting the transaction with care and transparency. His insistence is not only about ownership, but even more, about responsibility. He ensures his family has a permanent place in the land and a future built on integrity.

Then, Abraham turns to the next generation, sending his servant to find a wife for Isaac. Even in grief, his focus is forward-looking. Hayei Sarah, then, is not a story of endings, but rather, it is a story of the sacred duty to ensure that life continues with dignity, hope, and covenant.

Today, we face our own test of covenantal responsibility. A just and compassionate society ensures that its people have enough to eat. Yet millions of Americans - children, working parents, veterans, and seniors - rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to feed their families.

Thankfully, the government shutdown has ended. However, as we have seen in recent weeks, when debates in Congress threaten SNAP funding, or when government shutdowns interrupt its distribution, it is not simply a budgetary matter. It is a moral crisis.

The Torah commands, “If there is a needy person among you… you shall open your hand wide” (Deut. 15:7–8). The prophets insist, “Share your bread with the hungry” (Isa. 58:7). These are not optional acts of charity; they are the heart of covenantal living.

In Hayei Sarah, Abraham models that same moral clarity. He takes responsibility, even when it costs him. He refuses to say, “It’s not my problem.” When a society turns its back on the hungry, allowing politics to outweigh compassion, it betrays Abraham’s example, and I believe, goes against what God expects of us.

SNAP and every effort to combat hunger are not merely policies - they are expressions of covenantal obligation. Abraham secured dignity in death. Today, we must ensure dignity in life. Hayei Sarah calls us to act with foresight, compassion, and integrity - to see hunger not as someone else’s issue but as our own sacred work.

While the government shutdown is over, we saw its impact, and understand the work that we must do to feed the hungry in our community, in our country, and our world.  Thankfully, we have many organizations in South Jersey hard at work on this issue, including JFCS.  Our TBS Social Action Committee and Social Advocacy Committee are hard at work as well. The Social Action Committee, under the leadership of Naomi Mirowitz, has organized a TBS food drive that will continue until Thanksgiving.  Please bring non-perishable food to TBS which will be donated to the JFCS Betsy and Peter Fischer Food Pantry. In addition, this Shabbat, our Social Advocacy Committee, under the leadership of Steve Kaufman and Gail Raucher, has organized a Shabbat of learning about the hunger crisis in our country and how we can help. There will be an informational table in the sanctuary lobby, and after the service and kiddush (around 1PM) we will gather in the Rose Chapel Jenofsky Beit Midrash to learn from JFCS staff members, Meri Seligman and Deena Neuwirth about the current moment, and the very important work that JFCS is doing. The session will also be livestreamed. I hope you will join us!

This Shabbat, and in the weeks and months to come, let us remember that our covenant with God endures when every person has bread and dignity at their table. That is the true life of Sarah and the sacred responsibility we inherit.

Shabbat Shalom, 

Rabbi Bryan Wexler