The greatest act of Tzedakah I ever witnessed came during my third year in the pulpit rabbinate. I was serving a congregation in suburban D.C. when Operation Solomon began; the first organized large scale exodus of Jews from Ethiopia. The Jewish communities around the world had to raise millions of dollars to make it possible.

The D.C. Jewish community took a very pragmatic approach to their responsibility. They called a meeting of all the congregations and organizations and assigned a dollar amount to each one. Our congregation was told to raise $9,000. This figure was over $2,000 greater than our best High Holiday Appeal.

We began in the usual ways. Somehow though, this appeal was different. As the stories of the plight of Ethiopian Jewry filtered down to us, we realized that every delay cost the lives of our kin. For some it was the first time they were called to stand up for what they espoused. For many in the congregation it was their first chance to save the life of a fellow Jew.

David walked into my office. I had known him for two years. He was in his late twenties, worked at a menial government job and lived alone; a lost soul. David's story was not a happy one. He was abused as a child and afflicted with an emotional illness called "borderline personality." He barely made ends meet. In a good month he lived on soup and crackers the last week. In a bad month I gave him $20 for the soup and crackers.

David walked into my office and gave me five twenty dollar bills for Operation Solomon. I refused. I told him that he was not allowed to starve himself for this project. His response to me has stayed with me to this day. He told me that it was not right for me to refuse the money. "You told me this could save a life." He said, "You can't stop medoing this. I am finally thinking of someone else. I am finally able to help someone else who has even less than me."

I think David saved two lives that day; an Ethiopian Jew he will never know and himself.

There is a story of a great rabbi who asked Elijah where his place in the afterlife would be. Elijah showed him who would be standing with him - a man nobody knew or had ever heard of who one time ransomed captives and brought them to Israel.

David could have been that man.

I have seen people give hundreds of thousands of dollars for worthy causes, but how many times have they given up their food money to save a life?

David was and forever will be a Good Person.