We have become accustomed to the fact that there is a Chabad house in almost every corner of the world. If any problem arises, there is always someone to turn to. Jews get stuck somewhere? One phone call to a Chabad house and they will provide them with kosher food and everything they need. But is it really that natural and simple?
It is human nature that a miracle arouses excitement and admiration only the first time. If it is repeated over and over, we begin to treat it as something natural and self-evident.
But it is permissible to observe things a little and realize how unnatural this phenomenon is.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
A life of sacrifice
Mission is a sacrifice whose magnitude and significance are not always understood. You get up in the morning and make yourself a cup of coffee. Your hand automatically reaches for the refrigerator and takes out fresh milk. It's natural to have milk; how could it not? But for many of the mission, fresh milk is a distant concept. At most, they manage to obtain sterilized milk, but fresh 'Israeli milk', and on top of that, a few cheeses and dairy delicacies – some of which they haven't seen in years.
The whole issue of kosher food requires logistics that are not simple. Everything is based on deliveries from long distances, on large freezers. And if you forgot to order something, wait patiently for the next delivery. And yet, the messengers host guests at their tables and provide kosher meals to tourists even in the most remote locations.
In the morning you are busy with the question of distribution to kindergartens and schools. Many of the shluchim can only dream of this. Where is kindergarten and where is school. The children are taught at home. The father and mother are the kindergarten teachers, the teachers and also the friends. The technology that enables distance learning helps, but still the life of a shluchim means children who grow up far away and do not benefit from educational institutions that for us are the most routine and basic thing.
Before or after the dispersal, you go to the synagogue to pray. Of course, there is a minyan, even several minyanim. Many shluhim would be very happy if they had a minyan on Shabbat, and even that is not always the case. Sometimes it takes years of work to establish a minyan even on the high days. Think about the feeling of praying on Shabbat at home, alone, without a minyan, without reading the Torah.
To create something from nothing
There are shluchim whose nearest mikveh is a few hours away by plane. Fellowship for study – only via phone. And the loneliness, and the distance from family. Children who only see their grandparents on video calls. Young couples who decide to go on shluchim are essentially sacrificing their entire lives!
But over the years they manage to create something out of nothing. A mikveh is built, a synagogue is established, a kindergarten is founded. Sometimes even a school. A community begins to take shape. Jews who have almost forgotten their Judaism reconnect with their people and their heritage. The emigrants make new friends, members of the local community. They learn with them and they are helped to expand their activities.
And we haven't even talked about funding, which is neither simple nor obvious. A messenger needs to know how to raise donations, enlist supporters, and obtain partners. And in this challenge, they rise to the challenge bravely and create wonders.
These are the powers and blessings of the sending Rebbe, who promised that he would take the sent ones and their children upon his shoulders, and that their dedication and sacrifice would bring complete redemption to the entire Jewish people.
