5th Letter from Crimea

B”H

Chabad of the Crimea
Mironova 24
Simferopol, Crimea 95001 Ukraine
Tel/fax: 380–652–510–773
e-mail chabadcrimea@cris.crimea.ua

Iyar 9, 5756

Dear Everyone,

Zdrastya! When my first letter was received with such enthusiasm and requests to keep these letters coming, I was afraid that I would eventually run out of interesting adventures to relate. I thought for sure that last Pesach had to be the worst. Not to worry, this Pesach preparations and problems at least matched, if not surpassed, last year's "fun". Thankfully, when I sat down to write this letter I realized that G-d was kind to me and gave me amnesia so that I wouldn't relive it. Nevertheless, I’ve racked my brains, and I'll try to share some of it with you.

The Torah tells us that G-d prepares the cure before the problem. So while I was cleaning the books for Pesach, I came across a picture of the Rebbe burning chometz. None of us had ever seen this picture before and we don't know how it got into one of our books. I took it to be a sign, that despite my annual worry that I wouldn't be ready in time, everything would fall into place. Little did I know how important that assurance would be for me to keep my sanity (if indeed I am still sane).

Itchie had left to the states the day after Purim. The plan had been for him to be there for just two weeks. Thank G-d there was a simcha in the family, so I agreed that he should stay until Monday, March 25th, the 5th of Nissan. This meant that he would arrive in Simferopol the 7th of Nissan, exactly one week before Pesach. A lot of planning had to go into coordinating everyone's return to Simferopol. Our children are spread over six countries. Elkie's family, Hudie, and Chanie are in the USA. Bashie's family is in Canada. Faigie is studying in France, Sholom Ber in England, and Mendy in Israel. Our five youngest are currently here with us in Crimea. We were also bringing two rabbinical students to run the public sedarim. My husband, Chanie, and the two bochurim, Dov Greenberg and Moshe Muchnik (son of Chassidic artist Michoel Muchnik) were leaving Monday from New York, due to arrive in Paris Tuesday morning. There they were to meet Faigie and continue on to Kiev. In Kiev, they were to be met by Sholom Ber and a special truck that we had hired to pick up: 1) Pesach products in Zhitomir, sent by Ezras Menachem of France; 2) Four tons of matzoh in Kiev, that should have been shipped the week of Purim, but weren't; 3) Pesach supplies from Ezras Achim in New York; and 4) Our 20 large U-Haul boxes of Pesach supplies. At that point, the crew of six was to be dropped off at the train station, where they had three pre-paid kupays (sleeper compartments) for the 20-hour train ride to Simferopol. I had to be in Kherson anyway (a seven hour trip by train), so I was to join them on the train when it stopped there. The truck with all our supplies would travel on to Simferopol, where hopefully we would all reunite as one big happy family on Wednesday morning, a mere week before Pesach.

As the saying goes, "Man plans and G-d laughs." The flight from New York was two hours late. For some inexplicable reason the supervisor made the brilliant decision that, although fifteen passengers on that flight were continuing on to Kiev he was not going to hold the connecting flight for them. So they all missed it by 3 minutes — I kid you not! This meant they had to put all fifteen passengers up in a hotel, and supply them with three meals each (eight of the passengers had to be supplied kosher meals) for two days until the next Air France flight to Kiev. I wonder if that supervisor still has his job? In any case, someone did realize the financial folly of such a plan, and they were put on a different carrier instead the following day. But what about all our well-laid plans? Well, for Faigie this mess-up turned out great! In Paris there are two airports and the travel agent who issued her ticket neglected to mention which airport she was to depart from. So, of course Faigie went to the wrong one and also missed her flight. It took them all day until they found each other, but the next day they were able to travel together. The train tickets were paid for already, which was a total loss. (In this neck of the woods, inter-city train and bus tickets are only good for that one trip. If you miss the bus or train for any reason, they shrug their shoulders and say with a smile, "So sorry. You have problem.") Only Sholom Ber was able to make the train. The truck driver had to stay an extra day anyway because there was still a mix-up with the matzoh. The shipment of Pesach supplies from New York had somehow ended up in Odessa, and didn't arrive in Kiev until three hours after the crew left for Simferopol the next day.

Not knowing that Sholom Ber had traveled on the original train, I stayed over in Kherson an extra day so that I would still join everyone for that leg of the journey. Too late, I found out that the next day's train from Kiev did not stop in Kherson, so I had to travel alone after wasting an extra two days from Pesach preparations! And what a trip it was! There were no more regular tickets, so I paid a pravadnik (train conductor) to sleep in her compartment. She told me to wait so she could get her husband out. Then she ushered me into her place and locked the door. I lay down on the bed, when suddenly I heard snoring coming from the curtained berth above mine! What had she done, I thought, hidden her husband in the upper berth and locked the door? I started banging on the door, but she told me to shut up till the supervisor finished checking all the cars! Believe me it was a very uncomfortable situation. Boruch Hashem, it turned out to be another woman conductor “upstairs!”

We all arrived in Simferopol Friday afternoon (erev Shabbos Hagadol), where our next set of problems was ready to greet us. First of all, our truck had been sealed up by tamozhna (customs) in Kiev and was being held by tamozhna in Simferopol until we would arrive to allow them to examine its contents. It would take hours, and if we didn't finish before Shabbos, it meant waiting until Monday. The perishables (frozen chicken, etc.) would perish and the supplies needed for Shabbos would not be supplied. So off Itchie went with our driver to work things out with the tamozhnik! He ended up coming home with the truck semi-cleared through customs a bare ten minutes before Shabbos. The freight truck couldn't fit into our narrow street, so all the kids, guests, and neighbors had to quickly run to the corner, grab boxes, and bring them to the sklad (storage) room and garage! I imagine we lost some in the process. Meanwhile, the night before, one of our mekuravim had suddenly and tragically lost his 2 1/2 year old son. (It was later discovered that the child's death was caused by the incompetence of the medical staff. They were giving him treatment for the wrong illness!) His mother was waiting for us at the train station, to rush us over to do a tahara and funeral in the few remaining hours before Shabbos. Since my husband and children are Kohanim, this meant a fast course and initiation for Dov and Moshie into the last rites. We can't thank these two bochurim enough. They did a super job throughout their stay, despite every possible hurdle. So off we went, straight from the vagzal (train station) to deal with the people at the morgue, who never having witnessed a taharah before, thought we were crazy, and then to the cemetery to bury Elisha. Boruch Hashem, we all made it back home just before Shabbos, without further mishap. Special thanks go to my younger children, Dovid, Chaim, and Yoel, that we did in fact have anything to eat that Shabbos. They were really great!

Right after Shabbos we sent our driver to Donetsk to pick up wine, meat, and oil for Pesach. Imagine our shock when he returned from a two-day trip with only the oil and grape juice. It turned out that there was a misunderstanding in communications between the two secretaries and our order for 225 kilos of meat was completely cancelled, which would leave us without any meat, not only for Pesach, but for the next six months. We were also informed that due to a new Ukrainian law, which levied a heavy tax on imported wine, the donor organization sent grape juice instead. But we got plenty of oil because they sent 30 five-liter bottles instead of 30 liters! After some negotiations, another shliach agreed to sell us 50 kilos of meat, which barely lasted us through Pesach. So now we had to send our driver to pick up the meat and the Pesach supplies that we were supposed to have picked up in Kiev. Unfortunately, those supplies were now somewhere between Kiev and Odessa. From Odessa they had been sent to Kiev for distribution. From Kiev they sent it back to Odessa, where we were supposed to pick it up. (If this sounds like a grade B slapstick comedy, don't knock it. It's the closest thing to entertainment we've got. In any case, that's the way things work here.) The supplies ended up getting to Odessa too late for Pesach! In fact we never got them.

Before Purim we told our secretary to look for a cook for Pesach. When she still hadn't found one, I asked her how she would like to cook for 250 people? Two days before Pesach, when she realized that I was serious and she might have to cook, she brought her mother, who agreed to take the job. It was actually a blessing that she didn't find a cook earlier, because we didn't yet have a kitchen to work in either. (It was first being built.) Any normal cook would have already quit, except that ours hadn’t been hired yet! Finally, on Tuesday afternoon the kitchen was ready, the cook hired and we were ready to go shopping. Wednesday, erev Pesach, at 2:00 PM, the cook actually started to cook in the shul's "new" miniscule kitchen. Of course, as I mentioned in one of my previous letters, the plumbers here have an interesting philosophy. If they install a sink, you know that when you least expect it and least need the extra work, it's going to begin leaking. This can leave one big mess. Their solution? They don't connect the pipes to the sink. This means that it leaks immediately. This saves you from unexpected surprises, and you are always ready with an empty bucket for underneath the leaky sink. It also keeps one of the younger kids busy with emptying the bucket every twenty minutes. (When they complain, we tell them that it's training so if they want, they can eventually be water boys in the major leagues.)

While all this is going on in the shul, the same scene is being played out at our own house. But we have two leaking sinks, plus a bathroom which is full of leaks, whose sources we have still not discovered. (Maybe Miriam's well, and it's really a blessing?) We also bought an electric oven, but every time we use it, the fuse blows. If we turn off all the lights, don't use any other electric appliances, and use it only on the lowest setting, then we can get 15 minutes of use out of it before it blows. This has helped me create some interesting new dishes. Sorry, I can't share these new recipes with you, because you could never duplicate these conditions. For the last days of Pesach, not to be outdone in excitement, as I was preparing for Yom Tov, my gas stove developed a leak. We managed to get a repairman, in itself a miracle, but he said he couldn't fix it, and in fact he made it worse. I immediately set out with our driver to buy a new stove (it was 4:30 PM), and the repairman hooked it up to the gas balown, but it didn't work right. The lowest setting made our last year's Lag B'Omer bonfire look like a matchstick and turned the pots a sooty black. Not to despair! Our repairman slowed up the gas leak on the first stove. This made it possible for me to cook by switching the food from stove to stove before my house would chas v'shalom blow up or the food burn. Some more interesting recipes! With all the smoke and soot, you couldn't tell that we had just painted in honor of yomtov.

Despite everything, we did celebrate Pesach on time. We had two simultaneously run sedarim. The public seder, which was held in the shul, had approximately 250 people the first night, a bit less the second night. They were led by Moshe and Dov. The private sedarim, held in our home, were geared for closer mekuravim who wanted to stay for a longer, more in-depth seder. We had about 40 people each night. All other Shabbos and yomtov meals were in our house with an average of 40 people per meal. Moshiach's Seudah was held in the shul with 100 participants. We had to purchase four tons of matzah for pre-orders. Had we received it when we were supposed to, we probably would have needed five tons. We also supplied all Pesach needs for those who promised to keep a completely chometz-free home environment for the duration of yomtov. Boruch Hashem, 30 people kept Pesach for the first time in their lives.

On Sunday and Tuesday, I give shiurim. I tell a story about the Rebbe, we do HaYom Yom, and learn Ivrit, practical halacha, and another topic — currently we're learning about techiyas ha-meisim. Sunday, Itchie gives a shiur on tefillah. Monday is his class on Chumash with Rashi. Wednesday he teaches Gemara. Thursday is his Tanya shiur, and Shabbos afternoon we learn a sicha at shalosh seudos. On Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, he started a kind of chassidishe minyan. Itchie and several others go to shul at 6:00 a.m., where they learn a sicha until 6:30, and then Itchie leads them in davening — saying each word aloud, slowly. Shacharis and the Tehillim of the day takes just over an hour. Since they don't yet have an actual minyan and it takes them very close to the recommended time of davening as mentioned in Tanya, we call it a chassidishe minyan. (On Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbosim there is a regular minyan.) We are both also involved with teaching individuals, and preparing people for geirus, under the guidance of the chief rabbinate of Ukraine, as well as other private shiurim.

In the past, when we had the Shabbos meals in the shul, we used to have just over 100 people. However, since we have moved into our own "Chabad House," there is only room for about 40, which we have by reservation only, until we can get the needed funds for renovations and expansion. Hopefully, this will happen soon so that we can even surpass the amount of people we used to accommodate.

We are now preparing for our first community-wide brissim. We are bringing a mohel from Eretz Yisroel to do about ten bris milos, during the week of Lag B'Omer. Each person who has a bris will be given a beautifully decorated yarmulka with his new Hebrew name on it, and of course it will be followed by a festive seudah. We are also planning to make a day camp, as we did last year. We are expecting a round figure cost of about $35,000. At this moment we don't have any idea from where we are going to get this money, but certainly it will be there. There are a number of programs in the works. I”YH, we will do something for Lag B'Omer and for Shavuos. We also need to bring two teachers for the chinuch of our own children and at least three other children who are learning together with them, and we are constantly being asked to open a Jewish school.

Anyway, I guess that's about it for now. We really hope that, after a year of attempts, we will soon have a telephone, making it possible to get e-mail. (Meanwhile we have to run to shul to use the phone!) Until then, we can still be reached at:

цкраина, крым
симферополь 95001
Миронова 24
липшиц

For those of you who may think, "It looks like Greek to me," our address can also be written as:
Ukraine, Crimea,
Simferopol 95001
Mironova 24
Lipszyc

(Then the post office people will look at it and think, "It looks like Greek to me!")

Butdye zdarovia! (Zay gezunt!)
Leah Lipszyc & Company