MK Ruth Calderon (Yesh Atid) went to visit Rav Menachem From of Tekoa 2 days before his death (I do not know the nature of their relationship - student? friend? neighbor? admirer?). Rav Froman was unconscious, so she said he goodbyes and parted ways with him. She then went into the kitchen and rolled up her sleeves, and spent the next hour washing the dishes and cleaning up the mess, and then went back to the Knesset.
מי כעמך ישראל!!
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Nice post, but why מי כעמך? You think there are no non-Jews who would do this or that every Jew would?
ReplyDeleteYes, I don't think there is another Member of Parliament in the world who would do such a thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd who could have imagined there would just happen to be someone to take a picture of this photo-op....er...selfless act.
I disagree. There are many wonderful, down to earth people in the US congress who I could imagine doing something similar in a similar situation. Regardless, you have no way of knowing that.
DeleteThe picture was taken by Rabbi Froman's daughter and posted on his Facebook page, not by the press. Doesn't sound like a publicity stunt to me.
DeleteI wasn't saying or implying it was a publicity stunt. I think Dr. Calderon is wonderful. But I definitely believe that, while such an act might be rare for an elected official (Jewish or not), its not unique to Jews, just special people.
Deletepersonally I cannot imagine a congressman doing this. I might be wring, but I think he'd either ignore it or hire someone, or send over a staff member. but you never know.
ReplyDeletewhat does meee k'amcha mean? is it something that in a similar situation only a jew would act this way or is it a simple praise for chessed or values? point to a situation that only a jew would act a certain way, out of everybody in the world. what is the original source for the praise mee k'amcha?
The original idea of congress was that regular people leave their lives for a couple of years to serve the nation. Now it's more of a career, but every once in a while you get regular people who step up. (Just like we recently had in the Knesset.) It's those regular people, Jew and non-Jew, who certainly are capable of such an act. Not a congressman, but I certainly could see NJ's governor Christie doing something like this.
DeleteThose are good questions. Do you have the answers? Regardless I think people use it in the way of your first question. And I think it's abused. (I don't mean to be attacking you personally, please don't take offense, but I thought you'd appreciate the discussion.) Many Jews are so "ghettoized" that they lose sight of the fact that there are other good people in the world, who do good things. (I think that particularly affects us in Israel as it's one large ghetto country!) And also, overusing the phrase devalues it, especially if it's inaccurately used.
An example. I saw many use it with respect to the orthodox response in Long Island to Sandy. I grew up on the Jersey Shore and am still friends with non-Jews I went to high school with and saw, through them, very similar types of relief activities going on there.
I see "מי כעמך" as simply "Gosh, we Jews are awesome!". Doesn't have to be hating on non-Jews. Also, frankly, I think this is a woman thing. I doubt a male MK would just jump in and start tidying up.
ReplyDeleteBut that's my issue Abbi. The implication of your statement IS that we're better than everyone else and it's usually based on some "nice" thing someone did. But it often just shows our ignorance of others.
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