Mitzvah, the Hebrew word for good deed, was in full celebration Feb. 14 at Rice University. Chabad at Rice welcomed faculty, staff and students to the central quad to participate by donating blood, making sandwiches for the undomiciled population, creating cards for young hospital patients and entering a bone marrow registry.
“The Mitzvah Marathon is a way to teach the community how to channel all of their passion to make the world a brighter place,” said Rabbi Shmuli Slonim, co-director of Chabad at Rice. “Sometimes young people have the idea that the only way they can impact is that they have a lot of money or a lot of influence, but today we’re here to tell everyone that’s not how it works. By taking three minutes of their day to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, donate a food item to the pantry or make a beautiful card for a child who is receiving treatment at Texas Children’s Hospital, it makes a difference in this world.”
Rabbi Shmuli emphasized that these acts bring light to this world and that light is much stronger than darkness. “Though we may be living in a time that all we see and feel is darkness, our little light dispels that darkness,” he said.
McMurtry College’s Perry Gilberd, a member of Chabbad at Rice and volunteer for Mitzvah Marathon, underscored the rabbi’s words.
“I think the importance is that it really is so cheap to make someone’s day. It really just takes a matter of 30 seconds to do something that’s meaningful,” Gilberd said. “There are a lot of people, especially in this area, who can really use something to brighten up their day, and Mitzvah Marathon is a great opportunity to make it as easy as possible to reach that goal.”
