The Va’ad is back and it’s better than ever.

Truth be told the Va’ad never went away. Congregants and neighbors needing help have received meals, shopping assistance and visits just to name a few of the services provided by members of the Va’ad Gemuloot Hasadim or Va’ad for short. But we recognized that there were so many things that our congregation could offer to help our neighbors that we needed to get the Va’ad back into high gear.

We need your help to identify members of our community who might benefit from help with routine chores like shopping or meal preparation. Here are just a few of the services and plans on the Va’ad’s immediate agenda.

1) A COAT DRIVE: Bring your gently used coats to the Temple December 1-15 near the office for donation to the Dover Soup Kitchen.

2) SHOPPING: Need help going shopping or need somebody to shop for you?

3) FOOD: Would it be helpful to have a meal or two?

4) A FRIENDLY VISIT: At home or in a hospital, nursing home. We’ll bring Challah and grape juice.

5) HANUKKAH CANDLE LIGHTING: Enjoy a visit from children in our community who will light candles and do the blessings.

The Va’ad can always use your help, contribute a coat, deliver a meal, help to identify somebody who might benefit from a smile and a hello. Together we can all make a difference.

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Just as G-d visited Abraham after he had fulfilled the covenant of Brit Milah, we are commanded to visit the sick. The first few times I went to visit patients in the hospital, I was hesitant and shy. Who am I to intrude into someone’s sick room unannounced?

But a single flower in a simple vase drew a response that melted my hesitation and shyness away. People were so touched that someone would take time out of their day to visit a stranger. Sometimes the visits were brief, simply stating who I was and that on behalf of WMT, I had come to bring them the flower and wish them well. Other times I had the pleasure of spending some time with them.

One women and I spoke at length about growing roses and quilting, two subjects I always enjoy talking about. Another time I sat with an elderly gentleman. He was in tears that I had come by. He told me he hadn’t had a visitor in days because his family didn’t live close by.

I sat and held his hand as he told me about his family. He started to cry again when I had to leave. He was truly comforted by my visit. I cried as I left the room. I didn’t want to leave either. One week I entered the room of a woman with whom I had visited two weeks previously. This time her family was there and was thrilled to meet me. They were so grateful that I had visited their mother and told me how much these visits meant to her. The flower from the week before was still on the windowsill.

For a while I felt guilty feeling good after these visits, questioning myself as to how could I feel good when I’m walking out of a hospital and returning to my family and life and those unfortunate people were still laying in their hospital beds. I thought about how a simple flower and a smile had brought hope to these people, broken up their day of nurses and doctors and testing and probing. As time passed and I continued to ponder this question I realized I wasn’t returning to the hospital to make myself feel good, but out of an obligation to those unknown people to make them feel better. I came to understand that G-d wants us to feel good so that we will continue performing Mitzvot.

When I made my first round of hospital visits I really wasn’t sure what I would say to the people on “my visitation list”. I checked in with the Chaplain’s office and they gave me a list of the Jewish patients in the hospital. I did not recognize any names, and I wasn’t sure if any of the patients belonged to White Meadow Temple but the point of our visits was to bring some Shabbat peace to any Jewish patient.

I visited three people who seemed truly grateful that we were thinking of them, my visits were brief but I really felt satisfied that our mission was accomplished by these brief encounters. The last person on my list was a woman on the medical surgical floor. I checked at the nurses’ station to make sure it was OK to visit her. Apparently she had refused any visitors until this week though she had been in the hospital for several weeks. I entered the room rather tentatively and found a frail woman in the bed. She was surrounded by tubes and machines and she appeared to be asleep. I was almost relieved, thinking I can leave the flowers and our note of well wishes, I wasn’t sure I would know what to say anyway.

I quietly put the flowers down and turned to face the woman, whose eyes were wide open watching me. She could not speak because she had a trach tube but she nodded when I told her who I was and indicated I was from White Meadow Temple. She grabbed her writing pad and wrote a note asking me to sit down. She told me that she rarely had visitors and the chaplain came to see her, and he told her that a group of people from a local synagogue visited sometimes and she said it was OK to see her. She followed that statement with a short question…why? I guess I looked confused. She clarified…why do we come to the hospital and visit strangers? I began explaining that the Va’ad took on the important task of visiting the sick because it was such a basic tenet of Judaism, starting with the visits Abraham received. As I spoke our eyes met and I realized that she wanted a more personal response….why was I in that chair across from her. I told her that when I started hospital visits I did so as a result of a sense of obligation, but as I continued to do them I did them out of a sense of opportunity. The privilege of being able to demonstrate through this act of caring that somebody is important to me because we share the same community is very powerful. I realized that as I spoke the woman reached out to hold my hand. She could not speak but her eyes said “thank you” and I realized that it was really my place to thank her, for allowing me to be part of her life.

Visiting the sick is just one of many activities that the “Va’ad” does that is bigger than each individual member and one of the great things about our White Meadow Temple family. No matter how much time you have to spare… from just a few minutes to a few hours the “Va’ad” will benefit from your generous donation of time….but believe me you will benefit far more than you can possibly imagine.