Pre-Packaged Sabbath Meals Provide Taste of Home

Uri Shinsky spends his weekends counseling at-risk youth at a rural campsite in Colorado, but that doesn’t mean he’s deprived of a home-cooked Shabbat meal each week.

Rabbi Benjy and Leah Brackman, directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Northwest Metro Denver provide multi-course dinners packed up to-go and, in the process, a taste of a traditional Jewish Friday night to community members who find themselves in pressing situations. In Shinsky’s case, it’s a 48-hour shift from Friday evening to Sunday evening at Boy Scout campgrounds southeast of Denver, where he counsels boys aged 11 to 16 in a rustic environment that includes no running water and limited basic amenities.

“Now instead of bringing one cooler of food with me, I bring two,” said the 33-year-old, referring to the bundled Shabbat meal he picks up from the Brackman home each Friday afternoon before heading off to work.

Freshly-baked challah, a bottle of grape juice, chicken soup, roasted chicken and an array of side dishes and assorted baked goods make up the packages arranged by Leah Brackman in her own kitchen.

With seven children in the Brackman household and an array of weekly guests, there’s never a shortage of Shabbat food in the works. In addition, she prepares a sumptuous weekly Kiddush lunch served after Saturday morning prayer services at their Chabad House.

“The packages consist of whatever I’m making that week,” said Brackman. “There’s always variation; sometimes noodle kugel, sometimes potato kugel, or [the middle-eastern condiment] matbucha. It just depends.”

The food is transferred to aluminum and plastic containers, and off it goes to provide a literal taste of Shabbat.

For Shinsky, the food is part of reconnecting to his Jewish roots. He emigrated from Ukraine when he was 12, settling with his family in Monsey, N.Y. He attended a Jewish day school, but never felt drawn to the religious experience.

But after living in Colorado for several years, Shinsky recently decided to take a second look at Judaism, connecting with Rabbi Aaron Gancz during a trip home to New York. Gancz put him in touch with the Brackmans.

“A lot of things have been falling into place,” said Shinsky. “I’m losing the meaning of the word coincidence as part of my vocabulary.”

Spiritual Connection

At a halfway house in Denver, Yonatan Benezra enjoys his own weekly meal, dropped off personally by Benjy Brackman a few hours before the onset of Shabbat.

Recently released from prison, the 46-year-old wants to put his life back together; he appreciates not only the food, but the emotional and spiritual nourishment the Brackmans provide.

“Chabad has been very good to me all these years,” related Benezra. “In prison, the Aleph Institute was the only one that sent chaplains, and it was good to have some connection to the Jewish community.”

Now, in the halfway house, “the meals create the spirit of Shabbat,” he explained. “It’s a little space where I can be and just eat a kosher Shabbat meal.”

For Melissa Meyer, the Brackman household is like her own home, the place where she’s spent Shabbat each week since her recent divorce, which came shortly after learning she was expecting her first baby.

After giving birth to a girl in early February, she’s been staying with her mother. Since Meyer is a convert to Judaism and her mother isn’t Jewish, the Brackmans make sure she has an elaborate Shabbat meal each week, until she and baby Navah Bracha are ready to start coming for Shabbat again.

“Leah makes the most amazing things,” Melissa raved about the food. “She makes my favorite dish, Moroccan fish. I ate the whole tray! It’s really good.

“The Brackmans are really amazing,” she added. “They’re always opening their home to me, and they can’t wait for us to come back.”

Benjy Brackman noted that the meals-to-go fill an important need. Offered on an as-needed basis, they not only comfort people, but also provide a spiritual link for those who find themselves in isolated situations.

The same could be said for the Shabbat lunches served to the approximately 30 congregants who linger after Saturday services in the Brackmans’ neighborhood, located outside of Denver’s main Jewish community.

“When we hear there’s a need, we make an offer and supply the meals,” said the rabbi. “It’s our way of servicing the community.”