Myron bought huge amounts of food for Lag B'Omer • After the Corolla was canceled due to the Corona they decided to donate everything to the needy
Tens of thousands of food portions will be donated to those in need // Photo: Hospitality Rashbi
Almost all the mass events in the country have been canceled, including the many parties that take place every year at the Rashbi tomb in Meron Lag Ba'Omer, which includes traditional lighting. Despite the cancellation, the Rashbi Hospitality Association, which distributes hundreds of thousands of servings of food each year to those who have been preparing it, decided not to cancel the food distribution and instead distribute the food to families in need.
"Every year, on Lag Ba'omer, we distribute about 200,000 portions of food to the guests," explains Rabbi Eliezer Carlebach, director of the association, "so that we can prepare food for all the guests, already around Tu B'Shvat we order all the raw materials: 40,000 Schnitzels, 10 tonnes of meat, tens of thousands of liters of grape juice in favor of the RH Rotel custom and more. We pre-order the goods and store them in our own refrigeration rooms and huge warehouses in Meron. This is a commodity at the cost of hundreds of thousands of shekels per year. This year we were ready for Lag Ba'omer, everything had already arrived: disposable tools, meat, drink, when suddenly the Corona landed on us in the Purim area. "
Photo: Knesset Guest
Carlebach was clear from the beginning that this year's Omer this year is going to be quite different from what they know: "We had a discussion within ourselves about whether to make a hospitality this year and how to do it, and then a member of the Safed City Council approached us and told us: 'All year you give food in a hurry. This year, a large part of the city is in a financial situation not simply because of the Corona crisis, you will pass on the food to them. It turned out that there are children in town who are really hungry for bread because they usually get a hot lunch in the schools and now that they are in the homes, they have no food. We immediately convened a telephone meeting between all the members of the association and decided that we were entering the partition venture. "
Throughout the year, the association's kitchen in Meron prepares 500-400 servings a day, intended for visitors to the Rashbi tomb, explains Carlebach, "so we said that every day the same number of dishes for families. After drivers came and started to feed the food to families, exciting messages began to come to us. "You've closed our eyes," someone wrote to us, and one of the drivers told us how he walked into the house and saw a completely empty refrigerator. After the mayor of Safed asked for the amount of food we distribute, we now cook 1,500 servings of food each day. We use everything we have stored for Lag Ba'omer.
To allow people to experience the connection to Meron this year as well, with the arrival of the Rashbi tomb being allowed to only 300 invitees, the association's members also initiated a "light truck" - trucks that roam throughout the country at ultra-Orthodox and religious concentrations, collecting meron enthusiasts for fuel. Anyone who is used to bringing clothes for lighting, candles or oil every year, comes down in the truck, and also fills a note with a request. All this to connect the people and allow them a sense of partnership in lighting the maron. "
"Our kitchen is set up as an essential plant," concludes Rabbi Carlebach. "We have huge stoves, large stoves and everything needed for large-scale cooking, so it's really a factory, but not just a factory, but a kindness factory. Our team comes to the kitchen every day to We cook thousands of dishes of food for families in need, and we feed hungry children every day. We fulfill the Holy Aryan Order, which asked for the Rashbi tomb to be hospitable, and Lag Ba'omer will do it, hoping that next year everything will return to normal and we can celebrate. With all the reverence island. "
