THE BEFORE AND AFTER - Misaskim means a lot
August 16, 2017
THE BEFORE AND AFTER - Misaskim means a lot
In reference to “Finding Light in Darkness,” Ami Magazine Issue 328

Dear Editor:

When chesed organizations become the norm in our community, we forget what it was like beforehand and we may take them for granted. Both of my parents passed away prior to the founding of Misaskim. Let me describe the scenario of an Isru Chag Pesach levayah, probably the last one of the day, and a Friday to boot.

There were no “shivah chairs” to be had anymore. Anywhere. We were given corrugated boxes to sit on. My elderly father and uncles sat on my couch without the pillows to make it lower. It was not very comfortable with random springs poking up. I was in my fifth month. We made the best of it. Finally my cousins ran off to Home Depot and found only three white plastic chairs, because it was before the summer season. They borrowed a saw and sawed off half the legs to shorten them.

Someone called a chair rental place to deliver chairs and a coat-rack for a mechitzah. Someone else knew someone who knew someone who had a small sefer Torah. After shivah, the chair rental place handed me an invoice. “Oh...I have to pay… Okay...where’s the checkbook?”

I know Misaskim isn’t just about chairs. It’s also the peace of mind that someone else is helping you arrange things when you are out of sorts and otherwise pre-occupied, emotionally, physically and financially. We should never need their services anymore, but after experiencing the “before,” I can only appreciate what their services mean to us all.

Raizy S.
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