Reply To: The world is in a state of Geula- and don’t misunderstand us!

YR
“But I’m not sure why parts of Chabad have this hangup about helping other frum yidden. I understand it’s not the primary purpose, but when you do, do it with a smile, instead of complaining.”

Its not about frum vs frum. When a frum Jew needs Chabad and the shluchim can help they are so happy to help.

Its just that shluchim are people too and as people they have limited energy and finances and it rankles to be taken advantage of. So when you have tourist after frum tourist and businessman after frum businessman visiting your Chabad house expecting hot kosher meals with many not bothering to leave a donation it creates a dilemma which shouldn’t need to be there. And that dilemma can create resentment if not addressed.

The dilemma is that as shluchim how can you turn away a fellow yid and not give him a hot kosher meal when you can, and there’s nowhere else for him to get it?

On the other hand, the hot kosher meal doesn’t come from thin air. Somebody had to make it and pay for it. In many cases the shlucha herself. And she also in many cases just had a baby or is pregnant etc. to compound the energy aspect.

So yeah, when you have these tourists and business people come in expecting a hot meal, on a constant basis, it gets very draining. It rankles even more when many don’t leave a donation and they spend on every other aspect of their trip from the airfare to the hotel to the tourist sites but are expecting free hot meals for the duration of their stay. (And of course this is not the case of an emergency- were taking about taking advantage of shluchim because you can get away with not paying even though you pay for everything else…)

At least with the not yet frum you can attribute their lack of support and appreciation to their lack of Torah knowledge and education… And as shluchim your job is to help them develop that. The community in turn reciprocates by supporting the shluchim through donations.

Another point – in these tourist spots its pretty much nonstop at least during the seasons. It’s not like classic hachnosas orchim where the scale of it depends on how much you have to give financially, and also energy wise (like right after a baby etc)

However the best way to go about solving the dilemma is by being proactive. There are shluchim where a frum guest is a rare occasion and they’re delighted to host. There are others in the tourist spots who run restaurants so that tourists can eat hot kosher food and pay for it. There may be others who don’t feel resentful because their visitors are by and large appreciative people who don’t take advantage of them. Etc.