3. Keep up to date on the news so that you feel a part of events happening six thousand miles away, but don’t paralyze yourself. Instead, take the advice of Emunah Braverman, an aish.com columnist. She related the story of a rebbetzin living in New York during the Holocaust years who would refrain from using honey in her tea while her people were suffering. She recommended doing one action every day as a reminder; for example, skipping an afternoon chocolate or sugar in coffee.
4. If you are on any Jewish listserv, you are probably getting multiple requests for donations for many worthy causes such as purchasing tzizit, food packages, building bomb shelters, fire trucks… perhaps pick just one organization to give to. Know that even a couple of dollars is exciting to non-profits when they are working with very meager budgets. If you are planning a simcha or an event, see if you can downsize it a little and give the difference to a tzedekkah. In lieu of presents, guests can donate to a specific charity in your honor.
5. Better than giving charity is to support businesses in Israel, especially the ones in the hard hit south. Check out export.gov.il to find lists of companies that do business with and in Israel. With shmittah coming, you can help farmers observe this mitzvah by planting a fruit tree at http://unitedwithisrael.org/plant-fruit-trees-before-shmita.
6. Plan a trip to Israel. By booking hotels and trips now, you are infusing some much-needed cash into the slowed economy, not to mention that many resorts are giving deals to encourage purchases.
All these things are wonderful to do. You will reap tremendous rewards, merely by feeling part of a whole if nothing else. However, if you are not the Tehillim type, or money is very tight, there is another thing everyone can do.
At the same shiur, a woman related that on her recent trip to Israel, she went to a lecture by Rebbetzin Leah Golomb. Rebbetzin Golomb said that we learn that when we judge others kindly, God will judge us kindly. Therefore, let us be very careful to make shalom with one another. No matter what argument we get into with our spouses, families, friends etc., say the other person is in the right. Even if we are totally in the right, just say (to yourself) for the sake of the boys that we lost and those who are still in danger, “It’s okay. Let’s not fight. You are right.”
Most of all, don’t forget that the very fact that an Israeli flag waves at all and that there is a Jewish nation to gather and pray is a direct testament that there is a God. He hasn’t given up on us yet.
