Your Donation Matters!

וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ - Care for Your Neighbor

God is asking us to care for those around us more than at any other time in recent memory. Elderly who need food delivered. Talented people who need work, money and food. Singles looking for a soulmate. Couples in crisis. Mourners burying their parents who died from COVID. First responders working endless hours. Parents balancing running zoom school and their work. These are unprecedented times.

There is one remedy for making all of these crisis easier to bear. There is one act that we can do that will raise spirits, pay bills, save a marriage, feed the hungry…caring. Caring changes everything and changes you.

Thank God with Pico Shul's help I was able to clean for Passover. I was so sick with COVID-19 I could not breath. I called Rav Yonah and within ten minutes he helped my family with the problem.

(A recipient of a Passover and Pandemic Crisis Fund Grant.)

Caring for those we know and love comes naturally to us. A parent cares for their child, an dog lover cares for their pet, a doctor cares for their patients. So if caring comes so naturally, why does the Torah have provide a mitzvah/proscription about caring? Wouldn’t human nature be enough!?

The truth is, caring for those we love comes naturally. However, caring for those we do not know, takes developing a spiritual muscle. That is why God made it a mitzvah/proscription.

Caring is about a desire to improve your life and the life of others.

Thankfully we have a youthful membership who have risen to the cause and made a big difference in people's lives.

Here’s a story about one Pico Shul member who cares:

When covid hit and I was looking for ways to help, Pico Shul made it very easy. Rabbi Yonah’s weekly email laid out specific opportunities. Pico Shul matched up volunteers with elderly people in the community. I checked in for a few weeks with an elderly man who was looking to connect with another human being to just talk! After that, I helped to coordinate a couple of food deliveries to a firefighter station n and to Cedars Sinai medical workers. And more recently, I am organizing a group to volunteers to help at NourishLA, a large scale project where food is donated from local supermarkets, re-packaged, and donated to families in need.

Pico Shul’s DNA is built on caring. But we can only continue to have an impact on the community if we have enough people to show they appreciate what Pico Shul does for the Jewish community.