One of the most uncomfortable, yet true, sayings is, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." It's uncomfortable, because we would like to think that if our heart is in the right place, and our motivation for trying to do something is correct, then how could we do more harm than good? It is, however, also a true saying, because regardless of the purity of our objectives, sometimes things simply don't work out the way we planned.
Right now in our Torah reading cycle, we are very busy cheering on Joseph, our hero. He rose from ashes to authority in record time; he got revenge on his wicked brothers for selling him into slavery; and except for Pharaoh himself, Joseph is basically running the show throughout all of Egypt. Because we're so busy celebrating, we often "forget" to read about how Joseph actually went about his business. Sadly, when we read this week's Torah portion, we discover that Joseph used a devastating famine as a
tool for bringing the entire Ancient Near East into subservience to Pharaoh! The Torah lays out Joseph's multi-stage plan, and then concludes by informing us that, "Joseph gained possession of all the farm land of Egypt for Pharaoh, every Egyptian having sold his field because the famine was too much for them; thus the land passed over to Pharaoh" (Gen. 47:20). Obviously, Joseph's original motivation was only to help Pharaoh, the man who had saved him from prison, and to help his own family survive and prosper. But somewhere along the way, things just took an ugly turn.
This past week, Israel suffered another punishing disaster, though instead of famine it was fire. And once again, in the aftermath of the catastrophe, we discover that the best of intentions still don't guarantee a positive outcome. This week, Rabbi Richard Hammerman wrote a letter in the New Jersey Jewish News, entitled "Burning Questions," where he challenges many of our assumptions about tree-planting in Israel. Rabbi Hammerman asks, "In recent years, has the Jewish National Fund lost site of their primary mission: being stewards of Israel’s trees and guardians of its forests? Has their work in creating roads, infrastructure, building community centers, and other projects diverted funds necessary to assure that the forests and the land of Israel be preserved for future generations?" Later on, Rabbi Hammerman also poses the
challenging question: "Should Tu B’Shevat, as Israel’s Chief Forester has now suggested, be turned into a day to uproot and thin out and properly space trees to prevent future tragedies rather than plant again and compound the errors of the past?" There is no question that JNF always had the best of intentions for replanting Israel's forests. Nevertheless, more is not always better, and in this case we must seriously rethink strategies before launching back in and making the same mistakes once again.
At the same time, fear of blundering should not cripple us into inaction. Like Joseph, we need to seize the moment and try to affect positive change on a difficult situation. But we must also implement a better system of checks and balances, and when we donate money to the relief effort, we need to be responsible and invested donors, who make sure our money is being used to help, and not harm, the situation. Our gut reaction may be to donate immediately, with no hesitation. I encourage you, however, to instead consider doing just a little bit more research, both in this case and in every instance where we feel called to action. Make sure that your money represents you well, and that the end-result does justice to those noble intentions which spurred you on in the first place.
Here are a few great organizations helping the relief effort (...but please read about them before contributing!):
Photos in this blog post:
1. CC image courtesy of PaysImaginaire on Flickr
2. CC image courtesy of Diana Parkhouse on Flickr
3. CC image courtesy of Sputnik Mania on Flickr
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