Community Corner

As COVID-19 spreads throughout the country, Kosher Food Lifeline (KFL), a program of the Orthodox Union – the nation’s oldest and largest umbrella organization for the North American Orthodox Jewish community, launched programs to combat the anticipated significant increase in food insecurity, especially for the Passover holiday. 

(Please recite Psalms 20, 30, 88, 121, and 130.)

Eliezer Yitzchak ben Shifrah

Half of their volunteers are not able to work, the demand for emergency food has nearly doubled, and one in six food pantries around the city have already closed. That’s why Met Council urgently opened their warehouse on a Sunday to have an emergency food distribution from their Brooklyn food warehouse. With food running out in stores and the wholesale cost of food rising, America’s largest free kosher distributor of food, Met Council on Jewish Poverty, is trying their best to ensure that the neediest New Yorkers are receiving food during this crisis.

I hope that this finds you and your families, safe and healthy. As our city, state, and nation continue to combat the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, I want to update you on the latest information and actions regarding this public health crisis.

In this week’s parshah, Vayikra, the Torah discusses the various offerings one would bring to the Mishkan (and eventually to the Beis HaMikdash – the Holy Temple). In the opening paragraph (Vayikra 1:2), the Torah states: “When a man among you brings an offering to Gd, you should bring your offering from animals – from cattle or from flocks.” In Parshas Vayikra, Hashem’s closeness is revealed to us and we learn how to maintain our relationship with Hashem and how to show our love towards him.

One of the most fundamental beliefs we have in Yiddishkeit is that Hashem runs the world. No one can so much as lift a finger without Hashem willing it. Another is that everything Hashem does is for the good – even if we can’t see or feel that good at the moment. Whenever we are faced with adversity, Hashem is really giving us the opportunity to create a vessel to receive all kinds of brachah, r’fuah, parnasah, y’shuos, and nachas from our children, among other things.