Said to Myself

613 Good Deeds for 613 Days

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Elie Wiesel famously said, “For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.” And with everything going on these days and world feeling like a dumpster fire, it is easy to get paralyzed by it all. But, doing nothing is not an option.

I was thinking about this recently when I learned about an initiative started by Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin z”l, who was tragically killed in Hamas captivity in August 2024. Amidst all of their sorrow they found the inner strength to kick start “613 Good Deeds for 613 Days”. This is a global initiative marking today as 613 days since October 7th. There are still 55 hostages in Gaza. This devastating milestone echoes a powerful number in Jewish tradition—613, the number of mitzvot in the Torah. Jon and Rachel are calling on people of all backgrounds around the world to “flood the world with goodness and light in merit of all the cherished hostages coming home.”

Take part by engaging in acts of kindness and compassion today. Do something kind big or small. Take on a mitzvah ancient or modern and do it. Smile at someone. Help a neighbor. Make a donation. Visit someone who’s lonely. Bring light into someone else’s world.

You might ask, what will change when I do one small deed? But if everyone did just one good deed we could shift the world off its axis. These acts may seem small, but collectively, they carry enormous weight. There is nothing we cannot accomplish.

Please share your actions here on the Goldberg-Polin family’s padlet.

Together we can normalize being nice. Today that seems like a revolution. Together we can do something and allow goodness to flourish.

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Quote of the week

But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then erase me out of the book you have written.

~ Exodus 32:32

Said to Myself

About

My name is Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow. I have always had a deep love for the Jewish people and making the world a better place. It was while building community in the Former Soviet Union for YUSSR that I realized the transformative power of being a rabbi. After spending time learning in Israel, I moved to New York to be a charter student in Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, the Open Orthodox Seminary. After graduating in 2004 until 2008 I served as the Rabbi and ran the program at St. Louis Hillel at Washington University. Now I have the great pleasure of thinking about how Judaism is seriously fun. In my mind I am up at camp every day in my work at the Foundation for Jewish Camp. My wife, Cantor Adina Frydman, and I are the proud parents of Yadid, Yishama, Emunah, and Libi.

Said to Myself

When my son Yadid was four years old he came home from daycare and reported to me that he got into trouble. He got put into timeout for throwing sand at another child. Yadid said,” Myself said to myself, I do not want to be in timeout. Myself said to my cry, I do not want to cry”. And with that we started a conversation about his conscious life. It seemed only fitting to continue that conversation with a blog with the same name.

אָמַרְתִּי אֲנִי בְּלִבִּי

My son spoke in the words of Ecclesiastes, “I said in my heart: ‘Come now, I will try you with mirth, and enjoy pleasure’; and, behold, this also was vanity.” (Kohelet 2:1) My mission is to model a life that is personally meaningful, universally relevant, and distinctly Jewish. I aspire to be frank and to speak of Torah in real life.

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