GEN437 We usually think of “clothing the naked” as mere metaphor.  But for much of Jewish history this phrase had a far more literal meaning. Jews lived on poverty’s fringes; subject to rulers’ whims or mob violence, they easily found themselves stripped of their goods. The rabbis had no difficulty associating the duty to “clothe the naked” with God’s exemplary act in Eden.  For when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they knew that they were naked and needed makeshift clothes to cover themselves: “Adonai Elohim made tunics of skins for Adam and his wife, with which God then clothed them” [this verse]. Rabbinic preaching asks us to imitate God and care for the unfortunates among us. When disaster strikes, we take the duty to clothe the naked quite literally. Whether monsoons or earthquakes devastate communities thousands of miles away, or floods or hurricanes ravish areas closer to home, the losses are immense. For all that governments and private agencies do to help, they can’t completely carry the burden when many people lose just about everything. Then we also feel the imperative not to let those people go naked, but provide as best we can the basic necessities of food, shelter, and clothing. And even when nature is relatively benign, there are always those who, for whatever reason, can use what no longer suits us. But we cannot neglect saying a word about a far more pervasive problem: people who, one way or another, are stripped of their dignity. “Outsiders” of every variety are regularly degraded. And even those who seem integrated into the mainstream of their communities suffer at the hands of the many who debase others. Creating humane working conditions, respectful teacher-student relationships, sensitively egalitarian marriages, a politics of merit—these are the great challenges for gemilut hasadim today. BOROJMV 47-8