Colel Chabad Purim Cards Provide Gifts for Poor in Israel

Even while you’re decorating fancy food packages for your dearest friends this Purim, there’s another gift idea that fits quite nicely into an envelope.

To provide Purim fare for the hungry in Israel, Jewish individuals and families worldwide can help the Pantry Packers program of Colel Chabad give out gifts to the poor, matanot l’evyonim, as well as send traditional food packages known as mishloach manot. This is a new project being carried out by the nearly 230-year-old social-services organization, which benefits people and families in need in Israel.

“We already sold out of our first printing of cards and just sent more to be printed,” says Rabbi Menachem Traxler, director of volunteering at Colel Chabad, adding that cards have been sent to people in Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Featuring one of three different images—rice, garbanzo beans (chickpeas) or split peas—the cards read, in part: “In lieu of sending you mishloach manot, we are sending a gift of mishloach manot and matanot l’evyonim [gifts for the poor] in your honor to poor families in Israel through Pantry Packers.”

The cards, which are being used for charitable purposes in addition to food packages for friends and neighbors, sell in packages of six for $18. They are available online at: pantrypackers.org/purimcards.

Fulfilling the Mitzvah

Purim—a holiday of particular joy and gaiety as it celebrates the salvation of the Jews—begins this year on the evening of Wednesday, March 23, and ends on the evening of Thursday, March 24. It is obligatory to take part in four specific mitzvahs over the holiday: listening to the story of Esther, read from a handwritten Megillah (scroll); giving money to the poor (to at least two poor people); sending food gifts to friends; and taking part in a festive meal.

According to Traxler, sales of the Colel Chabad Purim cards will allow the organization to help Israelis in need participate in those mitzvot.

For instance, they host Purim parties at the soup kitchens they run in Jerusalem, complete with the reading of the Megillah. Food packages are given to participants in the organization’s Widows and Orphans branch, and mishloach manot are also sent to more than 1,250 homebound seniors. And individuals at Colel Chabad’s Grabski Multiple Sclerosis Center in Migdal HaEmek in northern Israel get to enjoy a real-time festive Purim celebration, which helps take their minds off their troubles for a bit, says Traxler.

“We operate assistance projects throughout the year,” explains the rabbi, “but we specifically help people fulfill the mitzvah of Purim, and these cards reflect that.”

The cards feature three different images—of rice, garbanzo beans (chickpeas) or split peas—and read, in part: “In lieu of sending mishloach manot, we are sending a gift of mishloach manot and matanot l’evyonim [gifts for the poor] in your honor to poor families in Israel through Pantry Packers.”