Six weeks ago, the sole fell off Rachel Levy’s shoes. They’d been flapping about for some time, but now they were beyond repair, and the nine-year-old had been clopping around in an ancient pair of mis-sized sandals ever since. Not that there was anywhere to go. Besides for school, the entire country was shut down. But when word of Mesamche Lev’s shoe distribution arrived, the little girl was ecstatic.

“I’m getting new shoes! I’m getting new shoes!” she sang. Her mother, Yudit Levy, was equally elated. “This is a big thing for us,” she told a Mesamche Lev volunteer at the distribution. “After such a winter, such a year, to know that Mesamche Lev would hold its shoe distribution was a big relief.” She continued.

“And it’s not just the shoes. I didn’t know how we would buy food for Pesach. We struggle every year, but this year, Corona destroyed our parnassah. We have nothing. If not for Mesamche Lev, I can’t imagine what would be with Yom Tov.” The woman in line behind her added – “I thought it would be impossible to have the chalukah this year. But every time I got nervous, and wondered if the children would get new shoes, or if I would have meat for Pesach, I calmed myself down by thinking, ‘Mesamche Lev will figure it out.’”

And they did. Despite the lockdowns and restrictions, the Mesamche Lev distribution took place, as it has for the past forty years. The event was held in a massive tent that filled the entire Richvat Shomrei Emunim in Yerushalayim – a giant Square of Chesed.

Arranging the distribution was no simple matter. When the organization began making plans, there was no way to know what the rules would be, come Erev Pesach. But one thing was evident from the start. The poor needed food and shoes – and they would get it.

Mesamche Lev - A harbinger of hope
As things turned out, restrictions were somewhat eased on March 7. By that time, the shoe distribution was over, and the meat event was well underway. But even before the first child entered the shoebox-lined aisles, the massive tent was a harbinger of hope.

“When I saw them putting up the tent, I knew things would be alright,” one avreich told a Mesamche Lev employee. Yet although things have gotten a bit easier, they aren’t quite the same.

“We spent months figuring out how to do this under lockdown,” said Rabbi Nussi Cisner, from the organization’s US office. “We ironed out the logistics, and arranged to have every detail set up in accordance with the rules.” That included installing plexiglass, sanitizing, and spreading the event over a full month, so that fewer people would gather at a time. It also involved streamlining the already-perfected process, so recipients could be served quickly, further reducing crowding. Another difference? The need. Mesamche Lev was deluged with new requests for assistance. “In all our fifty years, we’ve seen plenty, but this year is historic,” Rabbi Cisner says. With stores closed all year, and tourists entirely absent, business is at a standstill. And while Americans got large stimulus checks, their Israeli counterparts got nearly nothing. They are going hungry!

Mesamche Lev – a Pesach stimulus
Mesamche Lev’s distribution went a long way towards alleviating hunger and poverty. With the help of donors, including many who contributed stimulus maaser funds, they distributed assistance valued at $5,500,000. The event kicked off with the shoe distribution, where an astounding 32,000 children - 4000 more than last year - received top-quality, up-to-date leather shoes. One donor, a fifth-grade teacher in New York, tried to fathom the number.

“There are about a thousand girls in our entire school. This distribution gave shoes to like, thirty-two schools!” That number included separate distributions in Beit Shemesh, Kiryat Sefer and Modi’in Illit. The Modi’in location was added this year, to spare thousands of families from traveling to the main distribution.

When the last shoe box found its home, the meat distribution began. Mesamche Lev distributed complete cases of chicken to 9600 families. That is a major help to families so poor; many go from Shabbos to Shabbos without getting fleishigs. Some even split a single chicken so that it lasts two Shabbosim. But for Pesach, there will be full portions for all!

Dairy Delights
While the children rarely get fleishigs, they don’t typically enjoy much milchigs, either. Yogurt, cheese and butter are exorbitantly expensive. As in the past, Mesamche Lev ran its dairy products sale in Yerushalayim and Beit Shemesh, where 5200 families purchased items at less than a third of the price. “During the year, children can fill up on bread,” explains Rabbi Cisner. “On Pesach, they have nothing to eat. This sale alleviates real hunger.”

Check, Check, Check
Mesamche Lev was founded in 1971 when the tzaddik, Harav Zalman Ashkenazi, zatzal, noticed the struggles of widows in Eretz Yisroel. That focus on almonos continues. Mesamche Lev distributed large checks to 968 widows in Eretz Yisroel and the US. Like those seeking to participate in the general distribution, that number has skyrocketed this year. The COVID widows, especially, suffer terribly. Most of their husbands were young and healthy, and their deaths came as a huge shock. There was no time to arrange finances or make plans. The checks are a huge relief. One widow said it lessened the pain of leading the Seder alone. “You can’t bring back my husband,” she said. “But if the girls have new clothes, it will lighten the atmosphere. It will make the children, at least, feel ‘normal.’”

An ocean away
On this side of the Atlantic, hundreds of widows and orphans will celebrate Pesach in a spirit of abundance, thanks to Mesamche Lev. The organization distributed large checks to 333 widows, including many who lost their husbands to COVID. In all, Mesamche Lev’s Pesach distribution, valued at $5,500,000, reached 22,668 families. That includes 2600 families who participated in a subsidized-matzah program in the US. The distribution was Kimcha D’Pischa at its finest, and cemented the organization’s half-century commitment to widows, orphans and poor families in need.

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