Meals on Wheels in the Blizzard |
Courage There are, however, also some who show similar courage and devotion to the principle teaching of the Torah, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:20) One of these is Rabbi Eliezer Labkowski, the rabbi of the Center for Jewish Life located in Amherst, NY. During
the recent blizzard in Buffalo, which lasted five days in December of last year,
Rabbi Labkowski and several volunteers walked through that dangerous storm to
deliver food to those who were shut-ins or had no means of getting to a store
before the blizzard enveloped the city. Driving was prohibited during the storm
and walking risked the life of those who did so. Yet, together with a number of
volunteers, including Steven Rosenfeld and others whose names I do not know,
these courageous men, under the leadership of their rabbi, faced a true
nightmare of a storm, relying on the sentence in the Jewish prayer book, Adonai
li, v’lo ira, “The Lord is with me , I do not fear.” It
is easy to speak the word “blizzard.” It was no act of courage and no effort
to sit at home in a warm room and watch the horror of the snowstorm on TV. It is
a feat of unusual courage and confidence in the Almighty to leave one’s house
and walk into a storm which had not
been equaled in 46 years. Therefore I believe that Rabbi Labkowski and those who
volunteered with him to bring food to the needy at the risk of their own lives
should also win the Congressional Medal of Honor because I say so. Shalom
u'vracha. Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including The American Jewish Community in the 20th and 21st Century (2021).
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