Givens and Giving

Similarly, in its piece on Paul Reichmann, The Jerusalem Post quotes the Toronto Star:

“‘Paul Reichmann was not particularly comfortable with riches,’ the Toronto Star stated in its eulogy, noting that ‘the Reichmanns seemed anxious to shed personal wealth.’”

Having had the privilege of knowing Mr. Reichmann well, I beg to differ: he differed and deferred to those that begged! We Torah Jews proceed from the axiom that there is Free Will and, despite the conflicting proclivities of human nature, one can decide philosophically what is the right thing to do in a given context, not merely as a consequence of a psychological orientation but as a moral decision. The Toronto Star assumes that if he and his family gave so much it must be explained away psychologically rather than philosophically: “The Reichmanns seemed anxious to shed personal wealth.”

Given our givens, we disagree. My observation of him over the years at home and in his various offices where I visited him — Toronto, New York and London — was that he combined his sense of the challenge to achieve with his deeply ingrained recognition that with all his talents and perseverance, success was a gift from On High. As such, Mr. Reichmann viewed himself as a custodian of that largesse, quite comfortable with those riches but committed to the realization that the greater the success, the more it was laced and threaded through with a sense of responsibility and mission.

This article appeared in print on page 42 of the November 7th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.