Rabbi Hirschfield recalled a statement from Jim Goodrich, manager of Welfare Square: "We are taught that you go to the temple to make covenants, and you come to Welfare Square to keep them."
Saying the statement moved him to tears, Rabbi Hirschfield added, "And the test of the covenants we make is whether or not they actually benefit other people beyond our community. And it was clear to me that I was in the presence of masters of that teaching, and so why not would I return? For me, this is a beginning of shared discovery of how to strengthen that capacity in two communities."
And Rabbi Borak said he witnessed the example of "love your neighbor as yourself" — a value shared both in the Jewish Torah and LDS scriptures — at Welfare Square, adding "nobody lives it better than those in the LDS Church, in my experience."
"I was humbled by what I saw, and at the same time was profoundly inspired by what I saw," he added. "So I want to support this organization and this effort, and I see it completely as a manifestation of God's will for man being in this earth. I want to learn from it, and I want to contribute in whatever way I can."
