Misaskim to the rescue: A Shabbat story

Misaskim, the Brooklyn-based organization best known for providing assistance to grieving families, has recently expanded its services with non-Jewish workers and assistance to fliers stranded on Shabbat in out-of-the-way locations. “Misaskim has a relationship with Continental, and our director is also the chaplain at the Port Authority Police,” said Misaskim coordinator Suri Roth.
When deaths occur close to Shabbat, Misaskim operates a Shabbos Hotline, staffed by trained non-Jews, to help coordinate any situations regarding k’vod hameis. On June 17, a different situation arose where Misaskim rose to the challenge. With a few hours to go before Shabbat, the organization received calls from three separate planes diverted from Newark by inclement weather.
The most troubling of all involved a yeshiva bochur from Israel whose mother in Brooklyn was critically ill. Taking the risk of a Friday flight, his plane was stranded at a military base in Bangor, Maine. At the same time, a flight from Chicago found itself in Hartford, Connecticut; and a plane from Toronto landed in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Roth said that the other two flights were easily handled, as the couple in Allentown found a ride to New York, while the passenger in Hartford spent Shabbat the local Chabad House. “Our relationship to Continental goes back to chol hamoed Pesach, when we had a trip for yesomim,” Roth said. The annual outing brings hundreds of local orphans to JFK Airport, where Port Authority police officers demonstrated a rescue drill aboard a plane.
But the Bangor passenger was a more difficult case. “We asked for him to leave the plane, but international flights cannot bypass customs, and there were no customs officials in Bangor,” Roth said. The passenger could not avoid leaving the plane before Shabbat, but through Misaskim’s efforts, the plane was dubbed a priority, and flew to New York on Shabbat as soon as the skies cleared.
When the young man arrived in Newark, Misaskim’s Emergency Shabbos Initiative laid out a welcome with its non-Jewish workers picking up his luggage, supplying him with a chumash, food, and other Shabbat essentials, as he davened in the airport’s Marriott hotel. Rabbi Yechezkel Roth trains the workers; specifically dealing with how to, and how not to, help Shabbat observers undergoing emergencies. “We cannot move a niftar anywhere on Shabbos, but they can make the phone calls to prevent an autopsy,” said coordinator Rabbi Yanki Meyer
On the evening following Shabbat, another priority arose for Misaskim, with famed vascular surgeon Dr. Daniel Clair set to perform surgery on Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliyashiv, 101, a leading halachic authority in Israel. Using their contacts in the Transportation Security Administration and El Al, Dr. Clair’s medical equipment was rushed through security at Newark, and he arrived at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem in time for the surgery. Dr. Clair had treated Rabbi Eliyahiv seven years ago on the same condition, a bleeding artery near the heart. Roth described the procedure as an “extreme time crunch,” as the doctor rushed from one complex surgery in Manhattan to another in Jerusalem. “Time was of the essence and they had to take their instruments with them on the flights,” Rabbi Meyer said.
Yosef Shalom ben Chaya Musha is expected to fully recover and return home within the week.