With Trucks and a Big Heart

By Sara Spielman for COLlive.com

A Crown Heights tradition to serve food throughout Tishrei outside Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway to locals and guests from around the world dates back to when Nachum Markowitz was an Israeli bochur and Yeshiva student in 770 who went on Tahalucha and came back famished.

Although there were kiddishim with food at other shuls, at 770 there were not, because it was busy holding hakafos. As hundreds of guests would return after midnight from visiting shuls in neighborhoods as far as Seagate or Brighton Beach, many didn’t eat seudas yom tov simply because they didn’t have a chance.

Arriving thirsty and hungry, Markowitz went downstairs to 770, where hakafos were already underway, and met someone holding two bottles of mashkeh.

“I said I need to drink something, so he said, choose one: vodka or whiskey. There were hundreds of people looking for food. I promised myself that when I get married I’m going to make sure everyone has something to eat when they come back from Tahalucha,” Markowitz told COLlive.com.
In 1982, two years after marrying his wife Mashie, Markowitz started 770 kiddushim. It was filled with stories along the way.

Initially, some thought it may not be a good idea because while they’re selling the “Ata hareisa” Hakafos blessings downstairs, a kiddush outside would be disruptive.

So on Hashana Raba that year, Markowitz asked Mazkir Rabbi Leibel Groner to ask the Rebbe about his idea. Rabbi Groner said the Rebbe left to say Tehilim and he couldn’t guarantee a timely answer.
Not wasting any time, he went to a local store to put aside groceries, hoping to get the ok from the Rebbe.

The following morning, Markowitz arrived at 770 and Rabbi Groner said the Rebbe called him to his room after Tehilim and inquired about whether he asked police permission. Rabbi Groner said yes.
When the Rebbe arrived at 770 in the morning, he further inquired from Rabbi Groner on Markowitz’s plans. “The Rebbe expressed that there was Kiddush at the Farbrengen, so why the need for a Kiddush again outside of the Shul?”

Rabbi Groner answered the Rebbe, there will be “food and drink,” (not just kiddush, but a meal), to which the Rebbe smiled and said, “It’s a very good thing, it’s the right thing.”

“The Rebbe was very happy,” Markowitz says. “He made the break between hakafos longer so people should have the opportunity to eat.”

The Markowitz kiddishim benefit guests from around the world as well as the residents of Crown Heights. Many people tell Markowitz that his distributions helped them immensely and thank him on behalf of their wife as well, since their guests still had plenty to eat when the hostess was too exhausted to serve.

“Yom Tov is expensive, so the kiddush benefits the ‘akeres habayis,’” he says. “For two days, everyone can eat plenty of good food in 770 while she is at home, resting.”

Around 30 Chabad workers set up tables designated for ladies outside Ess and Bench with fish, fresh fruit, hot soup, and assorted meats and poultry, while tables on Eastern Parkway outside 770 are set up for men. On Motzei Yom Kippur, too, there are tables with food for breaking the fast when everyone comes out of shul.

Markowitz recalls the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka standing in the library inside the main door watching the big Kiddush after the Rebbe’s farbrengen on Simchas Torah.

“She was watching for 15 to 20 minutes,” Markowitz relates. “There were 100 long tables because everyone came together after the farbrengen before hakafos. The Rebbetzin had a problem with her legs, so her attendant told her, ‘it’s not good to stand.’ ‘How could I leave such a beautiful scene?’ the Rebbetzin asked, remarking that ‘It was so nice to see thousands of people gathering at that hour.’
“Before she left to return to the library a few minutes later to sit down, she said, ‘Where was this young man all these years?’ She so enjoyed watching it.”

Markowitz reported to the Rebbe after the holiday, writing about expanding to include other yomim tovim. The Rebbe replied: “May it be His will that it be an everlasting enterprise, always expanding.” The Rebbe also blessed: “Fortunate is your lot and great is your merit. The merit of the community will be at your aid.”

This blessing is now displayed on a sign on the food trucks.

The following year, after 770’s Gabbai R’ Nochum Pinson announced that there would be a Kiddush outside, the Rebbe said, “A Kiddush? A grand Kiddush!”

Today, the grand Kiddushim take place on Rosh Hashana, Tzom Gedalia, Motzei Yom Kippur, Sukkos, Shemini Atzeres, Simchas Torah, and Shabbos Bereishis. The sight of endless crates of food lining Eastern Parkway and filling a fleet of trucks is a staple of Tishrei in Lubavitch.

The Rebbe also referenced the Kiddush in a sichah from right after Maariv prayers on Shemini Atzeres, when the Rebbe said the gabbai just announced that people should go outside for a kiddush seudah.
One year on Simchas Torah, the Rebbe said during the farbrengen that everyone should bentch each other and give each other blessings. Someone approached Markowitz and asked him for a brochah.

“I said, why are you asking me? The Rebbe is right downstairs!” Markowitz recalls.

The man informed Markowitz, who had been preparing for the Kiddush, that the Rebbe said everyone should take the opportunity to bless their fellow. Since Markowitz has so many zchusim (merits) for providing thousands of people with food, he should bless him, the man requested. The individual said he and his wife had not merited the blessing of children for 15 years.

Markowitz quickly decided to form a “Beis Din”. Joining with another two individuals, Markowitz declared, “With the Koiach of the Rebbe who just instructed that everyone bless their fellow, this couple should be blessed with a healthy child, Neshama Beguf. As we, the Beis Din below declare it, so must Beis Din above follow suit.

“That year, the couple were blessed with a healthy girl. It was the same year the Rebbetzin passed away, so they named her after the Rebbetzin,” Markowitz says.

Another time, Markowitz asked someone who also needed a brochah for a child to sponsor orange juice for the Kiddush.

”Make it sweet for Jews and Hashem should make it sweet for you,” Markowitz told him.
Markowitz blessed him for twins at the spot where the Rebbe danced hakafos, and nine months later they were blessed with twins.

Since then, blessings have poured in for many who have partnered in Markowitz’s endeavors. It even included a trip to Kazan, Russia for a wedding. A Russian boy asked for a brochah for his brother, who was dating a non-Jewish girl, and he was hoping for him to meet a Jewish girl. Markowitz gave him a bottle of wine to make a l’chaim for the farbrengen and then one for the Chassunah. A couple of months later Markowitz received a phone call from the shliach in Kazan, Rabbi Gorelik, who said the bochur decided to leave the non-Jewish girl, became engaged to a Jewish girl from Chelyabinsk and the family invited him to the wedding.

“It is not me,” Markowitz explains about the many miraculous events. “I feel that because the person participates by giving food, he’s giving a blessing to himself. I’m just a gabbai. And like the Rebbe said, a gabbai is “ana bekoach,” it is the Rebbe’s Brocha.”

The project is completely funded by the general public and you may participate at www.kidush.org.

This year’s kiddushum are principally sponsored by Rabbi Yitzchok Raitport (in memory of his son), R’ Sholom Ber Drizin and family, R’ Yerachmiel and Rivkah Leah Jacobson and family, Rabbi Don Yoel Levy (in honor of his wife’s birthday and his daughter’s anniversary), the Steinberg families and the Davidov and Nachshanov families.

This article was first published in the COLlive Magazine – Tishrei Magazine for 5780, distributed free to Crown Heights residents and guests. Copies are available in local stores.