The Rebbe's Dinner

My kitchen looks just like it does on almost any given Friday. Flour all over the counter from my challah baking, cake ingredients resting on the counter and oven stuffed with food. Then there is me, looking just like I do on Fridays - dusted in flour and sugar and running from stove to counter and back over and over again as I create my Shabbos dinner. In reality, I am thinking it is not really "my" Shabbos dinner that I create each week, but maybe it is the Rebbe's Shabbos dinner.

Let me explain...

This Shabbat marks 21 years since the Rebbe, the leader of Chabad, no longer was able to lead us in a physical sense. While we can no longer physically see the Rebbe, he remains a VERY influential force in my life. Quite truthfully, it is the Rebbe, and his teachings, that define my very life. As a child I had many opportunities to visit the Rebbe and see his warm smile, and receive his blessings. Throughout the years I have studied the Rebbe's teachings and now as an adult I have defined my life by these very teachings. The Rebbe was a visionary - and had this dream of spreading the light of Torah and lessons of kindness across the globe. I am proud to be called a "shlucha" -emissary -of the Rebbe. I am proud that my family and I are amongst the thousands of families all over the world who are following his lead and reaching out to others with a warm smile and a helping hand.  While it may be 21 years since he has left this world, the Rebbe is very much alive in everything we do!

So back to the Shabbos dinner...why is it the Rebbe's dinner? It is the Rebbe's dinner because I truly do not just cook for myself and my family. Part of what we do is invite people from all walks of life (including an IDF soldier who just got out of the army and Levi asked to join us tonight!)to join us in celebrating Shabbos each week. This is the Rebbe's work, his dinner.  

As I type this, one of my children is asking about the box of food we are packing up on our counter, and I hear Levi explain that the food is off to a family that is in town visiting their family that sadly had a horrible tragedy after a car accident yesterday. Magically, as happens so often, the food I have cooked manages to expand and become enough to pack up for someone who got stuck in town, is visiting family and keeps kosher or any number of reasons why we may need to provide someone with a kosher Shabbos dinner. I cook and bake and chop and mix - all because we have learned from the Rebbe to treat everyone with loving kindness. We have learned to think about what we can do to help someone along their way on this journey called life. 

And so, it is time for me to stop typing and go finish packing up the food - knowing that by the guidance of the Rebbe I can touch someone's life with the food I have cooked. 

Of course it wouldn't be a blog post without a recipe...and so I share a recipe of a beet salad that we quickly made for this last minute food delivery. 

Good Shabbos!

Beet Salad

Pre boiled beets (found in the produce section in the grocery store)

Fresh Italian flat leaf parsley

Lemon juice

Olive oil

Salt

Garlic

Cube the beets. Finely chop the parsley. Season with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and garlic. Mix well and enjoy.