A Toronto yeshiva student who died last month in a car accident is being commemorated on April 3 by the city’s Chabad community during a lively parade of “mitzvah tanks.” The fleet of 15 decorated RVs will drive up Bathurst Street beginning at 11 a.m. to hand out matzah and pamphlets about the coming holiday of Passover.
One of the RVs was bought in memory of Meir Likhovetski of North York. Likhovetski,19, was a student at the Yeshivas Lubavitch school in Toronto. He was killed on March 7, in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, where he was volunteering with a group of American teens. According to media reports, his car went off the road along a busy interstate.
Likhovetski’s classmate and friend, Shmuly Wudowsky, also 19, told The CJN that the Chabad organization bought the new van on Wednesday in the United States. It was to be decorated with pictures and teachings of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Then volunteers were planning to drive it north to Toronto on Saturday night, to arrive in time for the parade on Sunday.
“Meir’s picture will be inside the vehicle,” Wudowsky said, adding that the new van will be driven to Meir’s parents’ house before the parade starts, for a ribbon cutting.
Rebbe’s 120th birthday
Each year, Chabad communities around the world stage parades with decorated RVs, usually just before Passover. The idea originated in the early 1970s when the Rebbe decided his organization needed to begin doing mobile outreach to bring Judaism to the community.
The timing of the parades coincides with the Rebbe’s birthday on April 12, 1902. The Ukrainian-born rabbi died in 1994 in New York.
This year’s parade is special because it marks what would have been the Rebbe’s 120th birthday. While Toronto’s parade will be the largest ever staged here, the faithful in New York are planning a massive parade with 120 mitzvah tanks. That event is set for April 12, which coincides with the Rebbe’s actual birthday according to the Hebrew calendar, the 11th of Nisan.
According to Wudowsky, who was a grade behind Meir, his friend was the youngest of four children. He is survived by his parents, Mordechai and Olga Likhovetski, and three older sisters.
The family are Russian Jewish immigrants, but Meir was born in Toronto.
Likhovetski is remembered as a young man with boundless energy who was “always putting others first”, according to Wudowsky.
“If a boy didn’t have food, he was the one who made sure it was taken care of. If a boy was short on money, he would gladly give out his credit card.”
Wudowsky guesses that Meir was so occupied with doing good deeds that he only slept in a bed 150-200 nights out of 365.
“Meir accomplished things throughout his 19 years of life that others may not have even accomplished in 90,” he said.
Joy after lockdown
Wudowsky organized a similar parade of pick-up trucks and floats in Toronto in the summer of 2021. That one coincided with the festival of Lag b’Omer. He wanted to spark some positivity in the community, after two years of lockdowns, restrictions and school closures. This new parade for his friend is no exception.
“The Lubavitcher Rebbe emphasized the importance of doing random acts of kindness to bring more good into the world, and the mitzvah tanks will go a long way in spreading this message,” Wudowsky said.
This isn’t the first time a mitzvah tank has been brought to Toronto in memory of a yeshiva student who died too young. The Jewish Russian Community Centre brought the first-ever van here, several years ago, in memory of Refael “Rafi” Kaushansky. The 17-year-old died of heart failure in 2014.
A second van was brought to Toronto in the fall of 2021.
The newest van that is now being dedicated to Meir will not remain in Toronto permanently. The plan is for it to be returned to New York to be put into service there.
The Toronto Mitzvah Tank Chabad parade will begin from the Yeshivas Lubavitch building at 3055 Bathurst St. and head north. It will stop along the way to invite people inside where they can learn about Jewish customs and do good deeds.
Then, the 15 vans will split off and visit one of 15 Chabad synagogues in Toronto and York Region.
According to Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, of Chabad Flamingo in Thornhill, where one of the vans will visit, the coming holiday is a good time to reflect on what Jews can do to help repair the world.
“Current global events, from the lingering pandemic to the catastrophic situation in Ukraine, can and should be a wake-up call for us all to increase our own acts of loving kindness and goodness,” he said.