Sales of this card benefit Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. Click here to buy, and details below.

In May of 2012, there was a 1,000-year flood in Nashville, my home town. Because it is a hilly place, some people were devastated and others were high and dry. I live in a little bedroom community laced with creeks and rivers, and the destruction was shocking. I have one friend who lost both her home and her business on the same day. The most striking thing about the tragedy was the way the more fortunate among us lept into action to help their neighbors. The middle school became a command center where food, supplies, clothing and hot meals were collected and carried out to victims of the flood by volunteers. A local contractor rebuilt a main road and bridge that had washed away, cutting off an entire section of town, with his own equipment and no thought of compensation. A giant tree came down across our road, and it magically disappeared, courtesy of a kind neighbor with a chain saw. The generosity of hands stretched out to help was astounding.

The same thing is happening after Superstorm Sandy. The hurricane and storm surge slammed the east coast from North Carolina to Maine and roared through New York City. Millions of people were without power, over 100 people died, thousands and thousands of homes are gone; some of the elderly will never recover. First responders who lost their own homes put their jobs ahead of their own interests. Again, the compassionate response is stunning... moms and kids making sandwiches for shelters, complete strangers roaming the streets to offer help to their neighbors, donation websites springing up so fast they're hard to count. 

Our Torah says, "Do not stand idly by..." (Lev. 19:16) and Tablet Magazine has a great list of ways you can help. Proverbs 3:18 says that the Torah is a "tree of life" to those who embrace it. We just got these "Tree of Life" cards finished and are donating 100% of the profit for sales of that card to Nechama, the Jewish Response to Disaster. You can donate directly to them via the special tab on the Hebrica Facebook page, and if you have a business, you can install that tab on your page with a simple app.