צְדָקָה

As is my habit, I fell asleep last night - at least that was the intention! - watching a teaching on the current Torah portion.

    This particular teacher began focusing on the giving of tithes and offerings. One thing led to another and he brought up tsedeqa. When he said that tsedeqa was a completely separate thing from the tithe, I was wide awake - I have been giving tsedeqa out of my tithe money for quite some time now. Since it was after midnight when I had made my way to my sleeping quarters, and it was now already a couple of hours later, I found my mind in turmoil about how I was going to rearrange my finances to accommodate this new information. Eventually, at 3am, I got up and came and sat down with pen and paper - and calculator. It took a little time to make the necessary adjustments, but once it was done, I was able to nod off. Baruch HaShem.

    I only woke much later and therefore had to miss the Sunday Shacharit prayer meeting. Very unfortunate. But I did send some good morning messages to some friends and especially to my beloved mother. She is my biggest fan these days - she loves to see pictures of what I make to eat!

    While I was up at 3am, I received a message from my sister and we ended up setting a date for a video call during this next week. It's been ages since we've connected, so we are both very pleased. She lives in New Zealand, and, although we're in the same hemisphere, it's very far away from South Africa.

    During the early morning hours I had set myself the task of creating some sort of a tsedaqa box for my home today. I'm not very artistic and my art supplies are next to nothing, but I did make one. Here it is:

It already has its first lot of coins in it. I am so pleased that I can please HaShem in this additional way.

    People all over the world are having such difficulties that it's hard to keep the prayer list updated. Truly, the times we are living in are not easy. We can have hope, though, as it reminds us that the redemption is near.

    As we embark on a new week, holding onto HaShem with all our might, let's remember that even if something looks bad, it is actually good - just disguised. As Rav Shaul says in Romans: "All things work for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose."

    Shavu'a Tov! - Penny