Chabad ships tons of food to Sendai, receives guidance from the Rebbe

Rabbi Edery of Chabad Tokyo in Sendai (Chabad of Tokyo)

JTA reports:

Chabad-Lubavitch centers in Tokyo and Hong Kong have shipped tons of food into one of the Japanese cities hardest hit by last week's earthquake and tsunami.

The Tokyo-based Chabad-Lubavitch of Japan and the Hong Kong-based Chabad-Lubavitch of Asia have shipped bread, rice, noodles, soups, canned foods, flour and oil to the city of Sendai, Chabad.org reported.

The organization also has commissioned a bakery in Sendai to give out free bread. The bakery also will serve as the Jewish response’s command center, Chabad-Lubavitch of Japan director Rabbi Mendy Sudakevich told the website.

Sudakevich said he also has organized 50,000 ready-to-eat food rations to be flown in from the United States.

Chabad Tokyo writes on their blog:

Together with our humanitarian efforts, we combine “The Seven Noahide Laws” campaign and distribute materials to residents of Japan, emphasizing that the strengthening of religious practice adds security the entire country.

...The response of the Rebbe MH”M Shlita through Igros Kodesh, that Torah and mitzvos must be maintained even when it is fraught with difficulties and tests, left no doubt. Rabbi Edery understood that he was obligated to help. The very next day he set off, accompanied by a group from his Chabad Center, known as the “Goyim of the Geula” (Gentiles of Redemption).

Japanese mitzva tank to distribute supplies (Chabad of Tokyo)

At Chabad of Tokyo, emissaries wrote a letter to the Rebbe asking if they should move south, and received the following clear and amazingly personal response through Hashgacha Pratis from a letter in Igros Koidesh, vol. 12, p. 315:

Apparently, he is frightening himself more and more… May it be [Hashem’s] will that he will begin to act in a manner that “his head will rule over his heart”, and as the Alter Rebbe says, “himself, in his nature”, and specifically that there is no basis for the fear that is apparent in his letter.

As a result of the letter, Tokyo Chabad will be staying in place and continuing preparations for Purim. 

Rabbi Edery also consulted with the Rebbe about whether his Japanese friend and Noahide confidante of Chabad should bring his mother to Tokyo before the tsunami hit. On the Rebbe's advice, the man's mother was brought to Tokyo and her life was saved.

See The Cool Jew for a video of the Chabad rabbi witnessing the damage in Sendai

See the Chabad Tokyo blog for more pictures of Chabad relief efforts in Japan.

Make a tax-deductible donation to Tokyo Chabad to support relief efforts in Japan with the Rebbe's blessing.