By Sofya Sara Esther Tamarkin
Our journey to board a cruise ship to Greenland started in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, which welcomed us with such strong winds that it was hard to keep both feet on the ground.
Together with another couple, my husband and I had traveled from Philadelphia to this cold and exotic destination. We had a few hours before we were set to board the ship, so we made our way to the Chabad House in Iceland’s capital, directed by Rabbi Avraham and Mushky Feldman.
The small Jewish community in Iceland welcomed the Chabad couple in 2018, and in the short time since, thousands of tourists and locals have benefited from Jewish public celebrations, kosher catering, and Torah classes.
The four of us were greeted with hot tea and a warm welcome. We had a few hours to spare, and my friend Anna and I decided to join Mushky’s weekly Torah class for women. Sitting with a group of women from very different walks of life, who had ended up in this remote place for an encounter with Chassidic, timeless wisdom, was incredibly inspiring—a memorable and warm start to our ten-day journey into the cold waters of Greenland.
I had done my research and emailed many departments to confirm in writing that kosher food would be available for us on the cruise, so when the chef came out to ask if we had any special dietary needs, we were frustrated to say the least.
The ship was sailing away from the shores of Iceland, with Chabad catering options getting further away by the minute. It was clear that we were going to be eating lots of fruits and vegetables for the next ten days.
Little did we know that this dietary emergency would become the gateway to a spiritual transformation.
The story really begins years earlier. During the pandemic, my maternal aunt passed away from Covid. I was then taking many online Torah classes. Soon after, I received a gift in the mail: pop-up flowers with a note of condolences and genuine words of love and support from one of the fellow students in that class. Interestingly, she did not sign her name but instead ended her message with two words: “soul sister.” I remember being touched to tears and immediately placed the flowers near my siddur so I could stand next to them in prayer every morning.
Now, five years later, with that same prayerbook on board the ship, we stood in the cafeteria near an apologetic chef who was willing to cook kosher but had no idea how. As we politely explained that kosher food cannot be easily prepared without a thorough understanding of Jewish laws and certain supplies, another visibly Orthodox couple approached and joined the conversation. Since kosher food couldn’t miraculously appear on the board of the ship, there was no point in arguing.
The next day, I went to a small gym on the boat. There were two more women there exercising on treadmills. I was on a machine on the left, and the other woman who had been promised kosher food was on the last treadmill on the right. With one woman in between us, I did not feel comfortable having private conversations about kosher food solutions, and so after I was done exercising, I walked up to her machine to strike up a conversation.
I was immediately greeted with a warm southern smile, as Kim adamantly reassured me that my name sounded familiar. Since our last names were mentioned over and over again when the chef and his crew tried to locate kosher meals, Kim had been trying to figure out where she could have met me before. We began to list possible ideas, including online classes. Finally, we discovered that we had taken the same life coaching class for years and heard each other's names during the sessions as participants shared their perspectives. As we continued to chat, Kim asked which ideas I connected to the most, and I shared that it wasn’t the information that made the most impact but the kindness of a fellow participant who found my address and sent me a gift of support during a very challenging time.
