UAlbany does a big BBQ on the evening before Spring semester finals, and this 2026 students were delighted to see a prominent sign advertising a Kosher option! Imagine their dismay and disappointment (at a big BBQ) to get a tuna sandwich!
Then the next day students who rely on Kosher came down to Indigenous Dining to find that none of the packaged Kosher lunches were there! None at all!
We had to get to the bottom of this. We emailed and made some calls, and turns out that a mistake was made, a big mixup… the 50 Kosher BBQ dinners were left in a warmer, and the 6 packaged Kosher tuna lunches were sent to the BBQ…
(Obviously, the most important and practical lesson of this story has to be get to the bottom of why these mistakes are happening, and how to remedy it going forward. For those students relying on Kosher, this an important fix that has to happen. It seems that UAlbany is very eager to put a better system in place and get this right.)
Now that we figured out what happened, and hope new measures will be in place to ensure proper handling and dealing with the Kosher lunches – we were thinking of what broader life lessons can we learn this mix-up:
(1) Keep your eye on the ball!
We’re entering the summer season. Some students will have much less structure and schedule this summer, and it can be possible for whole days and weeks to slip away into oblivion. It’s good to get some break and rejuvenating rest but don’t let a whole summer go to waste. Try to make each day count, to maximize on meaningful and memorable, get some content in. Keep focused!
(2) Make good Trades.
Life is full of tradeoffs. We’re always making decisions, bartering this for that, moving things up and down the ladder of our priorities and interests. But learn from this story: Don’t switch up 50 warm BBQ dinners for 6 cold tuna lunches! Let’s make sure our tradeoffs are well worth it, that the sacrifices and compromises we make are of even greater value. In one of our recent “Chayenu-Daily-Study Whatsapp Chat” posts, Oren H. posted a Rashi comment that meant a lot to him. It said something like “Know who you are exchanging for whom!” Don’t make silly trades you’ll regret.
(3) The BBQ Dinners are Here!
The frustrating thing about this story was that the 50 Kosher BBQ dinners were delivered! They were on-site! Only that the tuna lunches were offered instead. But that frustration, in the broader sense of things, is also a comforting and encouraging reassurance. All too often that which we seek feels non-existent, borderline impossible. This Case of the BBQ Dinners reminds us that the dinners were here, it was only an issue of access and availability, but they were here, on-site, caught up in a mixup. Many of life’s blessings (on a kabbalistical level) are much like these BBQ Dinners. They do exist and they are here. We just have to find ways to find, reach and access them.