Back in July of last year, I made off-hand reference to the fact that at the time, I was in Duluth-Superior on a mission trip with 70 United Methodist youth. A vivid memory of those days: during a break in the midst of painting the exterior of a homeless shelter for men, I read an article in the local newspaper that connected me to two rabbinical students with whom I immediately felt an affinity. I just came across a fine news report of their stay in the Duluth-Superior area, which coincided with our stay in the same area.
What Meir Menkes and Zalmi
Klyne were doing in the local prison, we
were doing at the homeless shelter, the Salvation Army, and transitional
housing projects: connecting, by word and deed, with fellow believers, potential
more than actual. In the midst of outreach to them, they reached back to us. What
was potential only, became reality thereafter.
For those on the United Methodist mission trip, it had to do with something a maverick rabbi from Nazareth – some say he is the Messiah - taught. “I was hungry, and you fed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” For Meir Menkes and Zalmi Klyne, it has to do with something Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson– some say he is the Messiah - taught. "Every single person in this world, God created and knows what they’re there for,’’ Menkes said. “Every single person, no matter what age they are, has the opportunity to help someone else and to do a good deed and to make the world a better place.’’
Yep. I believe that, too. Brilliant deeds wrapped in simple language.
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