Prior to Rosh HaShanah we read the curses of Ki Savo and prior to Shavuos those of Bechukosai in accordance with the decree of Ezra “so that the year and its curses should end.” The Ramban links the curses of Ki Savo with the destruction of the second Beis HaMikdash and those of Bechukosai with the destruction of the first.

The curses of Bechukosai are followed by prophecies of the eventual return of the Jewish People consistent with the end of the exile after the destruction of the First Temple. No similar verses of consolation are found in Ki Savo. The current galus has extended nearly two millennia and we do not know when it will end.

At one level the sins for which the FirstTemplewas destroyed were more severe including the cardinal sins of idol worship promiscuity and murder. The SecondTemplewas destroyed on account of causeless hatred (Yoma 9b).

Despite the severity of the sins that caused the destruction of the FirstTemple the Jewish People did not lose their essential tzuras ha’adam. At the time of the destruction of the Second Temple they did. That too is hinted at in the verses of Ki Savo which describe the most refined and soft-hearted eating their own flesh and blood. The curses end with a description of being returned to be sold in the slave markets ofEgypt. But there are no buyers. So despised and lowly has the Jew become that no one will purchase him even as a slave.

The work of restoring the Beis HaMikdash in our day is one of restoring the proper tzuras ha’adam — in other words tikkun hamiddos (repair of our character). As one of the deepest thinkers of our generation put it recently “Torah and mitzvos abound today. Yet there is nobody who genuinely works on correcting his middos.” Yet the Vilna Gaon writes in his commentary on Mishlei (4:13) “A person lives only to break those bad middos that he has not succeeded in breaking until now and therefore he must constantly strengthen himself [in this area]. For if not why is he living?”

The Gaon has pointed us toward our primary preparation for the Yom HaDin.

THIS PAST WEEK I had the honor of speaking with Rabbi Naftali Weinberg someone who takes seriously the Vilna Gaon’s emphasis on middos tovos and mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro and has sought to make those topics part of the basic education in every school in Israel.

Rabbi Weinberg made aliyah from theUnited Statesin 1971 together with his great teacher Rav Yisroel Zev Gustman when the latter established Yeshivas Netzach Yisrael inJerusalem’s Rechavia neighborhood. From the time that he arrived in Eretz Yisrael Rabbi Weinberg was bothered by the extreme divisiveness in Israeli society — not just between the various sectors of the society but even within the chareidi world itself. Only with Rav Gustman’s passing in 1991 however did he start thinking seriously about how to address the problem.

After Rav Gustman’s petirah Rabbi Weinberg went to a number of the greatest Torah figures in Jerusalem to discuss the rampant strife in Israeli society which he attributed in large part to bad middos in particular a concern with “me” and an inability to consider the needs or viewpoints of others. When he spoke to Rav Yosef Shalom Eliyashiv about the matter and discussed his theories the former told him “You are 100 percent correct. Go and make a change.” Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg told him to focus his efforts on the youth.

Around the same time that he received the encouragement from gedolei Yisrael someone whom he knew only slightly approached Rabbi Weinberg and told him that he had heard he was interested in doing something to address the constant machlokes in Israeli society. This man had just inherited a significant sum of money and out of the blue offered Rabbi Weinberg the seed money to start an institute for instilling good middos.

Thus was born Machon Ahavas Emes – the Center for Deepening the Value of Love of One’s Fellow Man. The machon has two major projects. The first is a four-page flyer Ish LeReiyeihu distributed weekly in shuls in Israel and electronically to thousands around the globe. The flyers are meant primarily to stimulate discussion around the Shabbos table about middos and mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro. For Parshas Nitzavim preceding Rosh HaShanah for instance the parshah sheet contains a dvar Torah on being maavir al middosav — not insisting on one’s rights and the strict letter of the law — as the best means of ensuring that Hashem will not judge us according to the strict din.

But by far the biggest project of Machon Ahavas Emes is the development of a curriculum for teaching good middos and derech eretz in schools. To date the Machon has produced seven attractive workbooks with lesson plans for a weekly shiur on middos tovos derech eretz and mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro. The workbooks are replete with stories of gedolei Yisrael but also of real-life situations relevant to the talmidim. Each topic covered includes dilemmas for discussion to get the students involved so that the topic is not merely academic.

So far the program is in 70 chadarim around Israel. But Rabbi Weinberg confesses he is disappointed that it is not in more. For instance it is not offered in Bais Yaakov because the principals said they have no funding for an hour per week of instruction in derech eretz. And some cheder principals are loathe to take time away from the traditional Chumash and Gemara learning.

Those principals who have introduced the curriculum however are effusive in their praise about how it changes the entire atmosphere in the cheder — in recess on the school bus and in class. One veteran rebbi told Rabbi Weinberg that he felt totally burned out after 28 years of teaching and was planning on quitting. Then one day a student jumped off the school bus and rushed back to the classroom to tell his rebbi “Todah rabbah.” He had taken to heart the curriculum’s emphasis on hakaras hatov toward one’s teachers. The rebbi’s plan to quit was quickly shelved.

Another time Rabbi Weinberg was in a shul when someone gave a klop on the bimah and announced that according to what he had just read in Ish LeReiyeihu he was obligated to seek public forgiveness from a fellow shul member and he now wished to do so.

Rabbi Weinberg’s great dream is to have the curriculum adapted for use in national religious and secular schools. Mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro have consistently been shown to be one of the most effective ways of introducing nonreligious Jews to the beauty of Torah in terms that they can readily grasp. He would also like to see the material translated in English for use throughout the Jewish world.

As we parted Rabbi Weinberg offered a story about the benefits of good middos not just for our judgment in the Beis Din shel Maalah but also in this world. A group of shochtim inBrazil noticed that one of their members was missing as they gathered outside their plant after work. They asked the gentile guard if he had seen their colleague and he assured them that he had not left the plant because every day he stopped and said goodbye to him before leaving. Eventually they found their colleague locked in a huge freezer that could only be opened from the outside. The daily courtesy to the gentile guard saved his life.

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A Better Way to Give Tzedakah?

Can tzedakah giving be made more rational?

It’s that time of the year again when our mailboxes are filled with pre-chagim appeals and every five minutes seems to bring another phone call from an organization seeking funds for needy families.

I do not doubt that each one of these organizations is doing valuable and important work especially in light of the recent draconian budget cuts. But I cannot tell one from the other: How many families are reached? How much food do the families receive? What is the organization’s annual budget? Overhead? All these are relevant questions but they are beyond the capacity of an operator manning a phone bank to know and beyond my capacity to ascertain without investing more time and energy than I care to.

I wonder whether some families are not on the lists of four or five organizations while others no less needy fall between the cracks because they don’t know how to find those who can help. The former does not really bother me as I assume that any family receiving food baskets has needs beyond what any single organization is supplying. But the latter does.

My real question is: Is there a way to make the collection of money for essentially the same purpose more rational? Rather than having a dozen or more organizations collecting for the same purpose would it not make more sense to have a single Tomchei Shabbos per city or at least per neighborhood as do many communities in theUnited States? Shouldn’t we have a centralized bureau collecting information on various families’ needs?

The way I have posed the question may seem to imply an obvious answer. But I’m not sure I’m right. Perhaps the competition between chesed organizations is a good thing and results in more money being collected than would be otherwise. Perhaps each one serves a slightly different type of community and those communities would be disadvantaged in a single communal drive. Some may wish for instance to donate primarily to yungeleit; others to their closest neighbors.

I’d be interested to hear from readers whether they think this is an area for communal planning or whether the seemingly inefficient present system represents the working of Hashgachah.