Chabad Delivers Shabbat Meals During Lockdown

As the coronavirus shelter-in-place order continues, Chabad congregations are delivering Shabbat meals around Los Angeles to hundreds of people who are unable to cook for themselves.

“This is not only for people who don’t have money,” Rabbi Levi Raichik of Chabad of Hancock Park, told the Journal.

Chabad of Hancock Park, also known as Congregation Levi Yitzchok, together with Bais Bezalel in Pico-Robertson and Chabad of Malibu’s Rabbi Levi Cunin, is running the program.

The initiative began as an effort to provide Passover meals to people in need, especially to the elderly and single. With the support of donors and volunteers, they delivered ready-made meals to people all over the city.

They decided to continue the program after Passover, in an effort to bring the light of Shabbat into people’s homes. “It brings a taste of Moshiach and a taste of Shabbat into people’s houses,” Bais Bezalel’s Rabbi Moshe Levin said. “It makes a difference in that person’s day in a real way.”

The volunteers have been cooking the meals out of Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad’s kitchen in the Fairfax district, and supporters have donated money to buy the food necessary to prepare the meals. Others have given their time to deliver the meals.

“A lot of people in the city of L.A. came through to make this initiative work,” Raichik said. “They opened themselves, their pockets, to make it happen. This was a community effort.”

His wife, Miriam, said the program give people the opportunity to fulfill the mitzvah of welcoming visitors. “You get to feed a guest,” she said. “You get the mitzvah.”

Raichik added that if someone calls minutes before sundown, requesting a meal, Chabad will get it to them, even if it means leaving their car behind and walking home so as not to drive on Shabbat. That’s exactly what happened right before Passover, Raichik said.

“The holiday started at 7:03 on Wednesday. The last person got their meal at 6:53. That’s what it is about,” he said. “Chabadniks will do that. They will walk home so that someone should get their meal. It’s ingrained in them. The other person comes first.”