Challah in Hawaii

You know you've gone to Challah Heaven, when you are sitting at a lovely dining table on your porch, merely a few steps from the ocean, palm trees swaying in the warm breeze, a little coconut milk, and a lot of Aloha, dipping your delicious freshly baked kosher challah into some hummos for Shabbat!

Now, if you have been to Hawaii, you may know that you will not find there a single kosher restaurant. And in the northern part of Oahu,Turtle Bay, where my family was vacationing, there is not a kosher restaurant nor a kosher kitchen, synagogue or nary a Jewish anything within a swimmable distance. There IS, however, Chabad of Oahu on the other side of the Island maybe an hour and a half drive away as well as a kosher caterer!

Imagine the following scenario in NY or LA.
Call a kosher caterer and order one home baked challa for 7 dollars. - OK. so far, sounds plausible.
Find out where and when you can pick it up and learn that the hours for pick/up will be impossible for you to meet. The caterer offers to drop the challa off with someone you'll be seeing later that evening...huh? really? OK, we can sort of imagine that.

Find out later, that the caterer was unable to get the one challah you ordered to that person and will meet you at the hotel, where the chabad is located, after hours. Are you serious? But it will be like 10pm or something when we can get there.... Really? That's OK? Can we pay you extra for meeting us so late? No? Just the 7 dollars for the challah? Are you sure? We really appreciate it. What? Meet you by the side entrance to the hotel? How do we get there? OK. Thank you so much.

Drive around in circles, get lost, call the only number you have for the caterer, and speak to his wife after 10:30pm - three separate times- for turn by turn directions to where her husband is waiting for you with the challah. OK... at this point, you've lost me. If this were NY or LA, this transaction would be long over. First of all, I would not have the home number of the caterer, and second- WHO is waiting around that late for 7 bucks!?

I'll tell you who. The red headed, red bearded smiling chabad chef of Oahu who opens the door of his car, parked in front of ours, politely walks up to the window of our car, in a dark alley, and hands my husband an unmarked plastic bag containing a delicious smelling home baked kosher challa in exchange for 7 dollars!!!

From one point of view, this could have looked like a shady drug deal or some secret spy exchange. But with Koshercool(tm) eyes it is easy to recognize that the value this man placed on getting us our kosher challa far exceeded that of the cost of the challah.

We thanked him for the challah, wished each other a Shabbat Shalom, and went away feeling so good about Jews... the ones that will wait all night to get you your kosher challa when you're far away from home; the ones that will meet you at night in the rain, in the cold ocean, to make sure you have a kosher mikvah, the ones who will stick their necks out for little in return. These Jews are very KOSHERCOOL(tm).

It is said that we are a "stiff necked people", and to that I say...It is Koshercool(tm) to be stubborn if it means you get to go to Challa Heaven!