You’re holding a tiny seed in your hand. You place it in a box. You check on it a week later, a month later, a year later. Mockingly, it looks up at you. “I’m still here. I haven’t changed.” You place that tiny seed in a spoonful of earth and check on it a few weeks later. Proudly, it shows you its roots, the beginning of a stem. “Soon, I’ll be an apple tree,” it shyly smiles at you. Can it possibly be that the earth has produced this miracle? If a bit of earth were to end up on your floor, you sweep it away. Yet this humble substance – dirt – has the ability to produce.
At Creation, earth was given a name. Adama. The same name of the highest created being. Man. called Adam. Man shares his name with the lowly clod of earth. Why? Because they share a basic quality. The ability to produce. The earth in the realm of tangibles, man in the realm of the spiritual. Only man can make moral choices, thereby producing a better version of himself. Again and again and again.
Fortunate are those who do live according to their most basic ability: Adam – to produce.
An Ezer Mizion volunteer took her family on a summer vacation. It included many of their favorite fun activities. They swam, they hiked, they went on a boat ride. The highlight of vacation? “Yesterday I took my children with me to my volunteering slot at Assuta Hospital where the children helped me on my rounds with Ezer Mizion’s refreshment cart. Each child proudly donned an Ezer Mizion jacket and helped to set up. Hot coffee, delectable cakes, sandwiches. Together, we gave out refreshments to people in the hospital waiting rooms. This was one of the most rewarding and fun activities of our whole summer vacation!” They could have spent the day at an amusement park but this mother made a moral choice, a choice that raised her family’s spiritual level forever.
Spiritual gain does not even stop as death approaches. . Amir Levi was an artist, painter and musician, who served in the IDF and fell in battle on October 7th.
After his death, his parents discovered that Amir had been a regular contributor to Ezer Mizion. Understanding that his days of accruing spiritual merit on his own are over, his family chose to combine his love for Ezer Mizion with his talents.
They decided to continue down the road Amir had chosen and set up an art stand in Jerusalem dedicated to his works – paintings, sketches, music – all the revenue to benefit Ezer Mizion. Last year, almost 40,000 NIS were collected. Funding that will benefit so many of the vulnerable of Israel’s population, continuing the legacy he left behind.
Volunteering to drive cancer patients to the clinic for treatment. Transporting a wheelchair-bound holocaust survivor to the Western Wall. Delivering hot meals to family members at the bedside of a hospitalized loved one. Donating stem cells to save a life. All under the auspices of Ezer Mizion, an empire of good deeds. Yes, we know how to grow, to produce, to become the Adam for which G-d created His world.
