Shul Planning Guide—Part 16—Organize Like a Business; Save Like Hatzalah

More inspiration from Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald:

“We have to conduct ourselves like a business, to be organized, efficient and focused on reaching our market. But we
must always remember that outreach is not about business, it's about neshamos,
souls. The Gemara in Sanhedrin 37a
teaches us kol hamekayem nefesh achas miYisrael, maale alav
haKasuv k'ilu kiyam olam malei, anyone who saves a Jewish life, the Torah
credits him with saving an entire world!
And here Buchwald is talking about reaching thousands, but we can do it
if we all get involved. The Gemara
mentions only saving nefesh achas, one life, but I believe that kol
hamekayem nefesh achas miYisrael means that if you have the opportunity to mekayem
elef nefashos, to save a thousand lives, and instead you choose to be only
be mekayem nefesh achas, to save one life, then you have lost 999
lives. If you have the opportunity to
save 1000 people and you save one, and you say, "look, one is like a
world," what have you done? If 1000
people were drowning and you have a big boat and instead you came out with a
rowboat, would you be a big hero? Of
course not. Obviously, if you save that
one person, you are a hero, but you’d be a bigger hero if you save 1000 people,
assuming you have the wherewithal to save 1000 people. That’s why I say that we have to each do our
parts. It’s not so difficult. Maybe not everybody has time to reach out to
1000 people, but if we have 1000 people each seriously reaching out to one
person, we have our 1000. And some of
those 1000 individual people are going to organize new local groups and efforts
and some are going to strengthen existing kiruv organizations that perhaps will
each be zocheh to many thousands of kiruv successes. So, let’s each aim for the thousand. Perhaps we won’t get the thousand, but maybe
we will get two, which is 100% more than one.
That’s important.”