The author (upper right corner), with chaperones from NJ and residents of New Orleans
Guest Commentary
By Joey Oriti
I’ve thought a lot about blessings and curses and what God wants us to do with these. I feel that blessings are opportunities to give and receive love. I believe that the reward for doing your part in a blessing is that you get a chance to take part in more blessings. Curses are things in life that get in the way of loving and blessings.
We wished that we could have gotten to more homes but we didn’t have enough time. There were miles of houses all around us that were falling down and damaged from the floods following the levee breaks. I knew this was a place where people died without time or help to leave -- it was hard to look at and depressing.
In New Orleans, I saw that there was one blessing that led to another -- like when I went to serve food to the volunteers who were gutting out houses. They were then able to gut more houses and help more people. The volunteers from Common Ground asked the people of New Orleans what they needed and did what they were asked to do -- like helping them get food, rebuilding houses, decontaminating their soil, growing community gardens, and repairing their women's center.
The people at Common Ground call this solidarity. In Judaism, we call this a sharing in a blessing, a mitzvoth -- in solidarity and mitzvot, we work side by side with people because every time we help them make their world better, we are also making our world better. Our worlds are the same.
When I worked side by side with people in New Orleans, I was keeping the covenant I made as a Jew, to create and share in blessings, even though curses were there to distract me. All of us on the 21st Century Freedom Ride were showing love, opening our hearts, performing mitzvoth in solidarity, and we continue to be strong and resolute.
We are still trying to help by saying things in the newspaper and holding protests. We even talked to our local Congressman. We want people to see that we really care and want to help out a lot. We know that sharing the blessings and curses of New Orleans can inspire others to join in and work in solidarity with the wonderful people there.
Thirteen-year-old Joey Oriti lives in Highland Park. He was part of the 21st-Century Freedom Ride this past June. This piece was adapted from remarks he made at his Bar Mitzvah.
SEE ALSO: Coming to a City Near You
Comments