Dear reader,

My name’s Nosson*, and I write to you from inside the dreaded “quarantine.” That’s right, my family’s got corona. It started with my oldest son, who is in bed with a fever and a bad cough. As miserable as we are, though, locked up in our house sick and waiting for this to be over, I have to admit something: I’m feeling… lucky?

I’ll explain. When I saw that my son was getting sick I immediately did a big grocery order, including plenty of snacks for the kids to nosh on. Then we picked up books, toys and crafts to keep everyone occupied during the long days home from school. I work from home, so my wife and I take shifts in the morning getting work done while the other tries to run something like a cheder in our living room.

But when I signed in to work today, my writing assignment for Vaad HaRabbanim was a wake up call. Right now, almost 200,000 Israelis are in bidud. A lot of them don’t have the luxury of working from home. That means they are missing the money they need to pay the rent. They can’t afford a big grocery delivery, or toys to keep the kids busy at home. In fact, some of the poorest families in Israel are those who are fighting sicknesses like cancer. They physically can’t make enough money to take proper care of their families. What this wave of covid is doing financially to people who are already sick, is devastating.

These families and their stories are close to Rav Chaim Kanievsky’s heart. That’s why a fund has been opened to help needy families hit by illness, with a bracha from the Rav that anyone who helps should, midah k’neged midah, be protected from illness themselves. A gathering of some of the biggest rabbanim in Israel are also getting together for an emergency prayer at the Kosel this week, for those who join the cause.

As the campaign itself puts it, if you can afford to miss a week of work and put food on the table, if you have never had to take a crowded bus to chemo treatments, you’re living a life these families could only dream of. 

It took having my own life turned upside down to see how blessed I really am. I’ll be donating to receive the Rav’s bracha, and I hope you’ll join me.

*Name changed for privacy