Every year, the transfer of the four species to Jews in Ukraine for the holiday of Sukkot involves complex logistics, and this year it was much more complicated due to the lack of flights to the country and the difficulty of reaching the bombed cities.
Despite the difficulties, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine did not give up and prepared for this ahead of time: The four species (etrog, lulav, hadass and aravah) left Israel for Austria a few weeks ago. They were then transferred to Hungary, where they underwent a process of sorting and were combined into sets and from there, in a refrigerated vehicle, were sent to the distribution center in the city of Uzhhorod in Ukraine, with the assistance of the city’s chief rabbi and Chabad emissary Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm.
From Uzhhorod, the sets were delivered all over Ukraine - to the rabbis of the cities and Chabad emissaries and even to small communities where there is no permanent rabbi or emissary - in order to assist Ukrainian Jews in observing the mitzvot of the holiday.
Sets were also sent by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine to Jewish soldiers in the Donbas region, at their request.
"Not even a war will stop us from continuing to provide religious services to every Jew in Ukraine wherever he may be. It was challenging, but I'm glad we succeeded, with God’s help," said the chairman of the organization, Rabbi Meir Stambler.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Sukkot in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)