Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
During Friday night services, Elliot Cosgrove of the Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan did something unusual for a Conservative rabbi: He asked his congregants to take out their phones. From there, he directed them to scan a QR code on their Shabbat pamphlets.
“I have two goals for this moment: both audacious, both doable,” Rabbi Cosgrove said from the bimah. “First, I want 100%. Second: I want $18 million.”
The QR codes and the fundraising, Cosgrove admitted in a phone interview Sunday, were unconventional. The Conservative movement usually prohibits raising money and using smartphones on Shabbat. But Cosgrove applied the concept to the rabbinic principle of pikuach nefesh, in which saving a life trumps strict observance of the Sabbath. As for the $18 million ask, Cosgrove spent the days before “working the phones,” appealing to dozens of groups that went on trips to Israel through the shul and having them coordinate within their cohorts. His initial request for donations appeared in an Oct. 7 email — the first one he ever sent on Shabbat in his time in the rabbinate.
https://forward.com/fast-forward/565051/israel-hamas-war-park-avenue-synagogue-uja-donations/
Judaism emphasizes the importance of life and the hope that supports it. As a result, 18 is a popular number that represents good luck. At weddings, bar mitzvahs, and when making honorary donations, Jews often give gifts of money in multiples of 18, symbolically giving the recipient the gift of “life” . Chai (life) also refers to the number 18.
“I have two goals for this moment: both audacious, both doable,” Rabbi Cosgrove said from the bimah. “First, I want 100%. Second: I want $18 million.”
The QR codes and the fundraising, Cosgrove admitted in a phone interview Sunday, were unconventional. The Conservative movement usually prohibits raising money and using smartphones on Shabbat. But Cosgrove applied the concept to the rabbinic principle of pikuach nefesh, in which saving a life trumps strict observance of the Sabbath. As for the $18 million ask, Cosgrove spent the days before “working the phones,” appealing to dozens of groups that went on trips to Israel through the shul and having them coordinate within their cohorts. His initial request for donations appeared in an Oct. 7 email — the first one he ever sent on Shabbat in his time in the rabbinate.
https://forward.com/fast-forward/565051/israel-hamas-war-park-avenue-synagogue-uja-donations/
Judaism emphasizes the importance of life and the hope that supports it. As a result, 18 is a popular number that represents good luck. At weddings, bar mitzvahs, and when making honorary donations, Jews often give gifts of money in multiples of 18, symbolically giving the recipient the gift of “life” . Chai (life) also refers to the number 18.