If you were reading this blog back in 2008, you caught glimpses of the summer I spent living in Jerusalem. While I was there, I shared an apartment with my dear friend Yafa, her husband Harley, and their daughter Ariel, who was then three and a half.

Yafa and I were ordained together last year. (Here's an article about her from what was then her local newspaper: For Rabbi Yafa Chase, all signs lead to service.) Since then, she and her family have spent several months in Ethiopia -- where she has lived and worked before -- following the vision and the intuition which told her that there was a son waiting for them there. For now they're back in the States -- they returned for Yafa's mom's funeral -- but they have fallen in love with a little boy named Samuel, and hope to bring him home soon.

Meanwhile, they want to do something to give back to the community of orphan children there. Enter Buy a Tallit, Help Orphans in Ethiopia. On that website you can read their story in Rabbi Yafa's own words; you can see images of the Ethiopian-loomed tallitot (woven by a collective of weavers in Gondar) which are for sale; and you can either buy one for yourself or as a gift, or simply make a donation.

Please consider helping my friends do something kind for children in need.