Changing the Future: “Give From Wherever You Are Whatever You Can” (Vayechi 5782)

As we read in this week’s Torah portion about the biblical Jacob gathering his children to give a blessing, the Rabbis puzzle over whether his blessing is a prophecy for their future or affirmation of their present. The episode calls to mind Claire Levin. She is pictured here with a kid she befriended four decades before in her neighborhood. 

As Claire’s family recently marked her fifth yahrzeit (anniversary of death), I first learned about the transformative impact she had on that kid named Steve. He was growing up with no mother and no father. Steve’s future was so bleak that one babysitter pinned a note to him saying “this boy has no chance in the world.”

As if that weren’t bad enough Steve was in an abusive foster home from the age of 3 until 16. Apart from the physical and emotional privations Steve’s fosters also forbade him from reading in their presence.Steve was a third generation orphan seemingly destined to a life of total despair. Until he encountered Claire. 

As a mom of three boys Claire actively walked the neighborhood. She would see Steve sitting outside reading the same book day after day. One day Claire asked Steve about why he was always reading the same book. “Its the only book I have,” Steve told Claire. A few days later, Claire brought Steve a box full of books.

Claire’s kindness and encouragement ignited a passion for reading. Reading offered Steve an escape, an alternative reality to one he was suffering. Claire’s caring regard also was a beacon. In Steve’s words, Claire the first of several “human lighthouses” who shone a light toward a brighter future for him. 

Their light also inspired his perseverance and nourished his resilience through high school, college, and a career in corporate America. They lit a path that carried Steve (Pemberton) toward becoming not only the chief human resources executive for Walgreens but also a loving  spouse and father of three. BET.com calls him “a trail-blazing corporate executive.” His bestselling memoir became the inspiring 2018 film, “A Chance in the World.” 

Four decades after getting that box of books, Steve searched for Claire to thank her. Because without her and the other lighthouses who showed him care, Steve believe he would not have achieved more than living out his tragic destiny. 

At their reunion Steve asked Claire why she did it – what inspired her to bring him that box of books. Claire answered she was fulfilling her mother’s vivid encouragement, “Whenever you are able, give from wherever you are whatever you can.”

Steve’s extraordinary capacity to transform his future and the small, but essential, part that Claire part that played bring us back to that Torah scene of Jacob blessing his children. According to Rashi (11th century, France), Jacob wanted to give his children a prophecy. He wanted to foretell their futures. But he wasn’t able. (Rashi to Gen. 49:1; Pesachim 56a). 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks learns from this week's Torah portion that the future is not made by our destiny. Rather, “we make the future by our choices. . . . There is no fate we cannot change, no prediction we cannot defy. We are not predestined to fail; neither are we pre-ordained to succeed. We do not predict the future, because we make the future: by our choices, our willpower, our persistence and our determination to survive.”

Steve Pemberton is concrete proof of this. He succeeded because of his profound willpower . And because Claire Levin was inspired to “give from wherever you are whatever you can.” May we be inspired by each of them to defy any negative predictions that plague us, exercise resilience and grit to overcome our obstacles, and show caring regard to others whenever we can. Our regard might just be the lighthouse moment that changes the future.