When Pearl Waldman’s baby had a seizure on a Friday afternoon, there was no time to pack a thing. She grabbed her handbag, strapped herself into the ambulance, and tried to stay calm while Hatzalah monitored her little boy. It was only later, when the doctors said the baby would be admitted, that reality hit: she would be spending Shabbos in the hospital.

“I panicked,” she recalls. “I didn’t have a thing – no food, no Shabbos candles, nothing.” Then she remembered Chesed 24/7. “I heard about Chesed 24/7 last summer, when I joined a Shabbos Box event, so I knew about the Chesed Hospitality Room.” Her impression when she opened the door?

“I was blown away! It was like coming home! There was tons of Shabbos food, and on one counter was a stack of Shabbos boxes!” That was the moment she realized that even if she was in the hospital, even if her candlesticks and Kiddush cup and beautiful tablecloth were home, Shabbos would still be Shabbos.

This week, the Jewish community is making sure that Shabbos feels like Shabbos for every Jewish patient. Thousands are joining Connect the Dots, the Nine Days Shabbos Box Project. The campaign connects members of the community to patient bedsides – by having donors sponsor the Shabbos boxes that make such a difference to the sick.

“When you join the Shabbos Box Project, you really leave a mark on someone’s life,” says D’vora Adler, project coordinator at Chesed 24/7, “Think of it. There’s a patient worrying about not having Shabbos candles, and you’re sending them to her. You’re connecting on such a profound level.”

Each Shabbos box is filled with hospital-approved LED candles, grape juice, a Kiddush cup, tablecloth, challah cover, besamim, and flowers – things that make Shabbos feel like Shabbos. The Shabbos Box Project has earned the respect and support of the entire community. Live events, where actual boxes are assembled and filled, are taking place in neighborhoods and bungalow colonies everywhere; virtual events are taking place online. Many are hosting events or sponsoring boxes as a merit for a patient they know, or as a way to give back to the organization that supported them when they were hospitalized.

To participate in the Connect the Dots campaign, visit connectforchesed.org; call/WhatsApp 845.354.3233 x 1107; text 914.806.2023; or email [email protected].