The Running Rabbis
Siegelmania
By Stanley Siegelman
NEWS ITEM: “The Running Rabbis” is a group of young rabbis, cantors and rabbinical and cantorial students. They raise money for charities by participating in marathons. So far they have contributed almost $30,000 to various worthy causes.
Ten rabbis in a marathon!
A truly rare phenomenon!
They run each race with bonhomie
To raise cold cash for charity.
Tzedakah, to these off-beat Jews,
Takes place by means of running-shoes.
In breathless voice, the running ten
Occasionally say “amen.”
These rabbis go beyond the norm.
Judaic’ly they are Reform.
Distinctly, there’s a Yiddish tam.
In how they show tikkun olam.
Like pellets from a sling-shot hurled,
They forward rush, to mend the world.
They’re healthy, too, not adipose,
Or prone to colds and runny nose.
The ten comprise a minyan which
Is never seated — there’s a switch!
Their deeds provoke a thought which stuns:
That even rabbis have the runs!
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Sheer genius! It's almost insulting to choose a favorite line or couplet but has contemporary Tikkun Olam ever been so succinctly captured:
Like pellets from a sling-shot hurled, They forward rush, to mend the world.
More power to your pen, sir!
Yes and yes. But I miss the Yiddish.
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