Help People - Don't Jail Them -- CHRONICLE Online/The WORD 04/01/25

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah

April 3, 2025

5 Nisan 5785

Parashat Vayikra

It’s hard to believe, but as of this summer, I will have lived in Summit, NJ, for 20 years. I remember when I moved to Summit and got involved with the Interfaith Council, I heard the story of how SHIP (Summit Helping Its People) was born. According to the story I heard then, a young man who grew up in Summit was found dead on a park bench in town back in 1990. He had been homeless when he passed away.

The response of the Summit community was amazing. A task force of clergy, public officials and concerned citizens was formed, and by the next year SHIP was up and running. Today, SHIP provides meals to the unhoused seven days a week. That comes out to over 15,000 meals a year.

SHIP—together with Bridges, GRACE, Summit Warm Hearts, Family Promise, the Mayor’s Homelessness Task Force and other community organizations—helps to explain why Summit was recognized at the National Alliance to End Homelessness last year (click here to read more). With the community working all together, the homeless population of Summit has steadily decreased. In the last few years, approximately 20 individuals have been placed in stable housing and they’ve stayed off the streets.  

This is the Summit I’ve come to love over the last 20 years.

So, it was sad to see that our city council is considering a law that would punish homeless people with fines, community service and even jail time (click here to read more). It is simply antithetical to everything that Summit has stood for since the birth of SHIP all those years ago.

It’s the exact opposite of the Biblical tradition that I have inherited from my ancestors. In this week’s Torah portion, we learn about an offering that was brought to the Tabernacle and then eventually to the Temple. It was called the “Shelamim” or peace offering. The basic idea was that if a person wanted to share a meal with another person, they would bring an offering to the priest. A portion would go to God, and then the rest would be shared among people. In other words, our ancestors understood that when we share what we have with our fellow human beings, we are essentially sharing with God and bringing peace into the world.

It seems to me that arresting people for their misfortune instead of sharing what we have with them runs counter to that inherited tradition.

It is my hope that the city council will come to realize that what makes our community so special is the way that its people responded back in 1990 with the birth of SHIP and in the many years since. Our community has worked tirelessly to help the homeless transition from the streets to safe housing—NOT to a jail cell.

If you live in Summit and you agree with me, I hope you’ll join me at the City Council meeting on April 22, when there will be an opportunity for the public to comment on this proposed law.

Shalom,

RAF.

PS. Because Passover starts on a Saturday night, we are supposed to get rid of all of our chametz before Shabbat starts as we are not allowed to sell or transfer our chametz on Shabbat. If you want to sell your chametz through me, please submit this form by Friday, April 11 at 10:00 a.m. Form more details about preparing for Passover, click here.