R' Mordachei Machlis: Feeding 470,000+ Strangers in My Jerusalem Home
September 21, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readFeeding 470,000 Strangers in His Jerusalem Home
Rabbi Mordechai Machlis and his late wife Henny opened their Jerusalem home every Shabbat for over 40 years, feeding anyone who walked in—homeless men, yeshiva dropouts, the Archbishop of Canterbury with 35 bishops, a missionary from Long Island who came to convert Jews, and tens of thousands of others. The numbers are staggering: approximately 100 people for Friday night dinner, another 30 for the second Shabbat meal, and a rotating cast that shows up at all hours, sometimes after midnight. But Rabbi Machlis insists the numbers miss the point. "Every person is an entire world," he says. "God created the whole world from one man, one woman."
The Dream That Started Before the Wedding
Machlis grew up in Brooklyn, the son of a rabbi, where hospitality was "part of our breathing." He and Henny shared a dream before they married: move to Jerusalem and open their home to whoever wanted to come. They started hosting guests almost immediately after their wedding in 1979, while still living in a two-bedroom basement apartment in Brooklyn. A homeless couple collecting charity on 13th Avenue became regulars. When they moved to Israel, the pattern continued and expanded. "People stopped calling a long, long time ago," Machlis says. "They just show up."
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of Inspiration for the Nation with Yaakov Langer
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 Timestamped Navigation Outline
- 2 (00:00) **Opening Scene** - Raw glimpse into the Machlis home: numbers, chaos, and the moment Henny passed away on a Friday afternoon
- 3 (01:17) **The Mission Defined** - 40 years of open house in Jerusalem: no invitations, anyone walks in
- 4 (03:57) **First Meal, First Guests** - Homeless couple from Borough Park, right after the wedding
- 5 (05:30) **The Real Regulars** - People who come only to eat, leave, and never engage
- 6 (07:09) **The Missionary Who Became Jewish** - Long Island missionary comes to convert Jews, leaves confused
- 7 (09:38) **The Archbishop of Canterbury** - 35 bishops want to come for Shabbos
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
What happens when you open your front door and just never close it? For over 40 years, Rabbi Mordechai Machlis and his late wife Henny hosted Shabbos in Jerusalem for anyone who walked in. No invitations. No RSVPs. Forty years of Shabbosim plus every Yom Tov adds up to well over half a million meals, served to everyone from homeless men to the Archbishop of Canterbury. This is the story of the most open house in Jerusalem.
Learn more and support the work: machlis.org
✬ SPONSORS ✬
► Jwed: Find Your Chosen One
JWed has been helping Jewish singles find each other for over 25 years, with more than 4,000 verified marriages.
→ https://jwed.com
► Wheels To Lease: #1 Leasing Company
Simple, stress-free leasing on any major brand, delivered right to your house.
→ CALL/TEXT: 718-871-8715
→ EMAIL: [email protected]
→ WEB: https://bit.ly/41lnzYU
→ WHATSAPP: https://wa.link/0w46ce
► Colel Chabad: Help Families for Yom Tov
Helping the neediest people in Israel with food, shelter, and basic necessities, and before Yom Tov that work goes into overdrive. The Pushka App makes giving tzedakah every day simple.
→ https://pushkapp.cc/inspo
► Bitbean: Software Built for Growth
Bitbean builds custom software designed to solve real problems and help businesses scale, serving everyone from TorahAnytime to platforms processing billions of dollars.
CALL HERE
→ 732-806-1125
LEARN MORE
→ https://bitbean.com
✬ IN MEMORY OF ✬
This episode is in memory of:
• Shimon Dovid ben Yaakov Shloima
• Miriam Sarah bas Yaakov Moshe
#IFTN
Lchaim.
More from this podcast
Inspiration for the Nation with Yaakov Langer →