The mitzvah program at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School (MJGDS) has been an important aspect of our Jewish education. For the past three years, the entire middle school has spent every Friday morning, participating in the school’s mitzvah program. A mitzvah is the performance of a good deed, for someone generally less fortunate than one’s self, for no reward. The recipients of our mitzvoth are not the only ones that have benefited from this program. In addition to helping the less fortunate, the mitzvah program has enhanced our understanding of the world and taught us the value of giving back to society. These lessons could not have been learned in the classroom, but only through real world experiences. I will never forget, for the rest of my life, the feelings of joy we have brought to others in the community.
To perform mitzvot, we carried out various acts of kindness such as delivering food to the hungry, volunteering at a local animal shelter, visiting and entertaining the sick and elderly, assisting children in low-income neighborhoods learn to read and write, and cleaning up the environment. Every Friday morning at approximately nine o’clock, the school had a community project planned for that morning. The middle school students would divide into groups to travel in separate cars to the location of the project for that morning. The cars were driven by various parents who would volunteer their time to enable us to carry out mitzvot. Once we arrived at our location, we assisted the students, elderly, those in need, or other less fortunate with whatever they needed help with that day. Afterwards, we returned to school and later on, would discuss what we had accomplished.
The mitzvah program will have a long lasting impact upon our lives for many years to come. It taught us that not everyone is as fortunate as ourselves. We have many positive elements to our lives, for which we should be thankful. These include good health, the basic necessities in life such as food, clothing, and shelter, plus many of life’s luxuries. Also, the program has taught us the joy that one can receive from giving to others. For example, whenever we went to Beauclerc Elementary School to help the students with their  reading and writing,  I felt terrific upon seeing the faces of the children smile from the moment we arrived to the moment we left. This project and the others we performed proved to us that we can have an impact on changing and improving the world around us. Hopefully, the mitzvah program will help us to avoid becoming self-absorbed with our own lives and keep us focused on the larger problems of the world.
In addition, the mitzvah program helped complete our Jewish education at MJGDS. Our Jewish education has taught us many things including aspects of our religion, how to follow our religion, and how to make the world a better place through Judaism. As stated in the Torah, “ the world stands on three things; the Torah, prayer, and good deeds.” While the first two of these principles could be learned in the classroom, the third could not and required real world experience. Our experiences gained in the mitzvah program showed us that one can continue to practice Judaism outside the synagogue. Without the mitzvah program, our Jewish education would not have been complete.
As we prepare to graduate and leave MJGDS, I have begun to reflect upon the nine years I spent at the school. When I do so, the mitzvah program is the first thing I think about. When I first began the mitzvah program in sixth grade, I did not see the significance of what we were doing. It was merely a field trip outside of school and a stop at the Gate Station for a snack on the way back to school. It is only now, that I recognize the lessons that I have learned from the mitzvah program. I believe these important lessons will enable me to make further contributions to the world throughout my lifetime.