In Jamaica, We Are Not Trapped by Our Circumstances

It’s been three weeks since Hurricane Melissa battered my home island of Jamaica. The Category 5 storm took the lives of more than 50 people and caused losses estimated at $8 billion, nearly half of Jamaica’s gross domestic product.

Montego Bay, the hub of tourism in Jamaica and the city where the Chabad House is located, was hit particularly hard. In certain regions, 90% of homes have no roof, certain villages are nothing more than piles of wood, and tens of thousands still remain without homes and are completely reliant on aid from NGOs.

The storm, which delivered record-breaking winds exceeding 200 miles per hour, severely affected the Chabad House, causing nearly $1 million in damage. Even a month later, we still haven’t gotten back electricity or running water and are using a generator to provide the most basic functions.

However, despite the chaos and devastation the hurricane brought, the first thought that my wife, Mushkee, and I had when we emerged from the terrifying experience was “Where do we start? Who needs us first?”

Specifically, I recalled a teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson — as relayed by the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “A Jew does not find himself in a situation. A Jew puts himself in a situation.”

In other words, we are not trapped by our circumstances. We transform them.

That is why Chabad mobilized our supporters around the world to arrange donations of clothing, food, medicine and essential supplies and coordinate private planes to deliver the aid and get it to the people who need it most.

This past week, at the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchim) in New York City, I spoke about how our experience in Jamaica echoes that of our forefather Isaac.

The Torah portion discusses Isaac’s ordeals digging wells to find water. After building one well, his enemies destroyed it. He dug a second well, which his enemies fought with him over. He ultimately dug a third well called Rehovot, meaning “expansiveness,” bringing life and hydration to the area.

The Torah’s lesson here is clear: When you face obstacles, don’t give up. Keep digging in.

As a place with only a few hundred Jews and with extremely limited options for kosher food, practically no Jewish infrastructure and many difficulties associated with living on an island, some people wonder why Chabad came to Jamaica in the first place.

My answer is simple. Because we have a mission.

One of the 12 pesukim (“Torah passages”) the Rebbe instructed every Jewish child to memorize is Yagati U’Matzasi Ta’amin. This powerful phrase roughly translates to “when you put in the effort, you will have success.” But it’s deeper than that. It means that if you have a mission, you can never give up until you succeed.

And in those moments, we can’t think about whether or not we are able to help people in need. We know that because we have a mission, we must complete it.

The Rebbe once shared that the secret to effectively carrying out one’s mission is to embody both fire and water.

Fire is the burning conviction that goodness and kindness will triumph — the holy audacity to believe we can make a difference when logic suggests otherwise. Water is the flow of compassion that nurtures, brings comfort and sustains life. It is this delicate balance that ensures that the mission is accomplished, but it is also done with care and sensitivity.

The deeper message of the Isaac story is that he wasn’t just digging for water. His wells represented the mission of the Jewish people, which is digging to uncover the hidden spark in every soul, the potential for goodness buried beneath even the most difficult situation. Every act of kindness, every mitzvah performed against the odds, every person reached in a place where Jewish life seemed impossible are like shovels digging to uncover water buried deep within the earth.

If we have learned anything from this hurricane, it’s that we don’t wait for light. We bring it. We don’t wait for hope. We create it. And when given a mission, you continue until the mission is complete. 

This article originally ran in Jewish News Syndicate.

Rabbi Yaakov Raskin has served as the Chabad emissary to Jamaica since 2014.