When a flight with dozens of frum passengers was repeatedly delayed at Orlando Internation Airport, Chabad was there to lift spirits and nourish the hungry souls stranded at the airport.
The issues began Sunday morning when a JetBlue flight was delayed multiple times due to a technical issue with the airplane. By the time the issue was resolved, FAA regulations barred the scheduled JetBlue crew from flying, further delaying the passengers.
A new crew was assigned, but when they boarded the aircraft, a second issue came up, delaying the flight once again. By the time that problem was fixed, the second flight crew was barred by FAA regulations from flying.
This left hundreds of passengers stranded, and many of them were religious Jews who could not eat food found at the airport. However, where there is a Jew, there’s another Jew to help.
Chabad of Orlando swooped in, bringing a massive array of foods and drinks for the stranded passengers to eat and replenish themselves before they would hopefully be allowed to board their flight.
Finally, at about 10:30 pm – more than 12 hours after their flight was scheduled to take off – their JetBlue aircraft soared into the air, bringing home the tired and frustrated – but eminently grateful to Chabad – passengers.
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8 Responses
Pretty amazing. I would imagine they had to overcome plenty of red tape to get that food in there as well.
The Chabadskers have true unconditional ahavas Yisroel. The same care, dedication and love they give for kiruv rechokim is equally displayed for kiruv kerovin. To the Chabadskers a yid is a yid and they have an achrayus to help that yid with what he needs – whether it is putting on tefillin or providing food to nourish the body or the soul. Kol hakavod! I am a fan.
Rebbetzin, to understand this properly, I suggest you learn chapter 32 (“Perek Lev”) of Tanya.
This chapter seems out of place; it doesn’t follow from chapter 31, and chapter 33 follows directly from 31, so 32 was plopped in there out of order, because it is the “heart” of the Tanya.
In it the author explains that if you look at someone as a nefesh habahamis who happens to have a nefesh Elokis as well, then if he does bad things there is no reason to love him. But if you look at a Jew and consider that who he really is is his nefesh Elokis, which is literally a part of Hashem, חלק א-לוה ממעל ממש , and it’s merely that this holy nefesh is trapped in a body that is controlled by a foreign entity, the nefesh habahamis, then it won’t matter how bad the things he does are, you will still love him, because he is not the one doing those things. On the contrary, you will have great pity for him, trapped as he is in such terrible circumstances, like someone who is a prisoner of an abusive spouse or something, and forced to do things he doesn’t want to do.
To chaya13, indeed, you wanna know how they got the food into the airport past security?
https://collive.com/shliachs-ploy-to-sneak-in-kosher-food-for-stranded-passengers/#comments
They bought plane tickets!! They paid for plane tickets to get past security with the food!!! These aren’t humans, they are angels!!!
That’s the difference between Satmar and Lubavitch.
Satmar would’ve had some marinara sauce for those elbows. Oh well…
Presumably they bought refundable tickets, so they were not out of pocket.
Kinsler: Not really fair commentary! We have read here, albeit much less frequently, about acts of kindness, tzadakah and ahavas yisroel undertaken by Satmar as well. Part of it is perception and Satmar tend to work on al lower key basis behind the scenes.
Kinsler, true point! The chesed of Satmar is second to none. Forget pasta with marinara sauce! Satmar would have brought a spread including kugels, sushi and lox.
I giggle as I imagine what others would have brought: Litvish rabbis would have brought daf yomi gemoras!!