Dear Friends,
I was scheduled for surgery on my back -- a discetomy -- tomorrow to relieve an impingement on a nerve leading to my right quadricep that has plagued me since Chol HaMoed Pesach. The cause of that impingement was a combination of age-related stenosis -- I turn 71 on the English calendar tomorrow -- and a herniated disc. About two weeks ago, I found that I could for the first time since Chol HaMoed walk up stairs without pulling myself up by my right hand. As a consequence of that improvement, my neurosurgeon and I have decided to put off surgery for the while, Baruch Hashem.
I had intended to ask subscribers to this list who were so inclined to become donors to www.DailyLiving.org with the prayer that the surgery go well. Now, I'm making the same request with the prayer that I not need surgery.
Let me emphasize that I do not want anyone to sign up who is not independently convinced that DailyGiving is a highly worthy cause. My situation is hardly grave enough to warrant that.
What follows is a brief description of DailyGiving. As subscribers, you should have already received my weekly Mishpacha piece about the organization. If you do decide to become donors, please mention my name in the box for messages, with birthday wishes, or prayer for relief from the limitations imposed by my back, or noting that you are giving because you read about DailyGiving through me.
B'yedidut,
Jonathan
Every day, Daily Giving joins together the gifts of one dollar a day from over 10,000 Jews in 34 countries around the world. Those proceeds are then distributed to 58 different chesed organizations, each of whom receive over $10,000 dollars six times a year, with more recipient organizations to be added as receipts grow. Currently, Daily Giving is disbursing close to $3.8 million per year.
The great thing about Daily Giving is first that it ensures contributors are fulfilling the mitzvah of tzedakah every single day. Second, it allows contributors to support a much larger and wider group of organizations than they would be likely to be able to otherwise -- pure chesed organizations distributing food an other necessities, Torah education efforts in the non-observant community, organizations working with disaffected youth and those suffering from various forms of abuse, kiruv and Jewish unity projects, organizations helping children with cancer and families with a stricken family member, and support for financially strapped families contemplating abortion because of the family's poverty. Those organizations are more or less equally divided between Israel and the United States. Third, by joining together with over 10,000 other Jews every day in giving to particular organizations contributors are building achdut in our community.