High Holidays 2004/5765
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The ESP of the
Jewish Way of Life

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Ethics Spirituality Peoplehood
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Being a more ETHICAL person.

You Are Blessed
This time of year speaks to us not just of the blessings of being alive but of our responsibilities to others. The following piece came to us, and perhaps many of you, as an email. We are not positive that the statistics are totally accurate, but share the piece because we thought it was an appropriate reminder and call to action for the New Year. 

During the Rosh Hashanah season, as we think of our lives and our roles in the world, we consider what acts of gimillut chassadim (loving kindness) we will perform in the coming year. With this is mind we offer this for you to discuss with friends or family around the holiday table. 

May we suggest that you put some of your tzedekah dollars toward one or two of these issues this year. You can do this through your Federation, synagogue, etc. You might even make a tzedekah box as a group and decorate it with things that remind you of the issues that concern you most. Throughout the year, when you recognize someone doing a mitzvah put a coin in this special tzedekah box in their honor.

 

    If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this: 

• 57 Asians 
21 Europeans 
14 from the Western Hemisphere (north and south) 
8 Africans 

• 52 would be female 
48 would be male 

• 70 would be non-white 
30 white 

• 70 would be non-Christian 
30 would be Christian (Jews are only one third of 1% of the world!) 

• 89 would be heterosexual 
11 homosexual 

• 59% of the entire world’s wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people, and all 6 would be citizens of the United States 

• 80 would live in substandard housing 
70 would be unable to read 
50 would suffer from malnutrition 

• 1 would be near death 
1 would be near birth 

• Only 1 would have a college education 
Only 1 would own a computer. 

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week. 

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of prison, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation you are ahead of 500 million people of the world. 

If you can attend a house of worship without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world. 

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the people in this world. 

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. 

If your parents are still alive and still married you are very rare even in the U.S. and Canada. 

If you can read this article you are more blessed than over 2 billion people in the world that cannot read at all. 

This Rosh Hashanah and always: cherish your blessings and share them with others less fortunate than you!

    

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