From The Desk of Rabbi Yehuda - Chabad Lubavitch of Westport

Totally In Love!

Friday, May 15, 2026 - 10:00 AM

Weddings are the paradigm of joy and commitment.

Last week, Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a community decimated on October 7th hosted the first wedding since that calamitous day.

The venue for this wedding was deliberate. The grooms family has deep roots at this Kibbutz and the bride — a nursing student at the Assuta hospital— suggested holding it there.

“We chose to hold such a special day, our wedding, and start our life together in a place where just a moment ago a terrorist organization wanted to destroy everyone. Where they tried to kill us and annihilate us, we have to bring life and renewal”, said the groom.

The Jewish ethos is one of endurance, love, joy and commitment. Challenges aside, we are here to tell the tale precisely as a result of this enduring, unyielding and ever-present reverence for life and living.

It comes as no surprise therefore —that the metaphor used for the great revelation of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai —is that of a wedding. The Jewish nation wedded to Gd — the Torah as the Ketubah, the marriage contract. The Jewish nation continually producing offspring through acts of goodness — mitzvot. The acts of both perfecting the world at large and ourselves as individuals and doing so with joy!

Choosing Nahal Oz for the wedding. How courageous. How absolutely Jewish. Joy and commitment — life and renewal”.

Next week— Friday May 22– we celebrate the anniversary and re-enactment of the Giving of the Torah once again. We read the Ten Commandments as it’s recorded in Torah, lovingly and painstakingly transmitted generation to generation. Whilst it took place 3338 years ago — we commit ourselves once again to celebrate our Heritage with joyous abandon!

With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yehuda & Dina Kantor

P.S. Join us for a Shavuot celebration with a delicious dairy buffet dinner for all — here, and for some Torah Ted talks on Thursday night — here.

Coming Full Cirle

Friday, May 8, 2026 - 10:00 AM

Jewish life and history has long been described as an illustrious chain. Each link intertwined with a preceding link stretching back and standing witness to events and moments that continue to inform and inspire.

Earlier this week, uniquely, at an otherwise standard IDF ceremony — reserve soldier Uriel Dreyfus was promoted to Lt. colonel. What stood out was that Uriel is a descendant of Alfred Dreyfus, who was famously and falsely accused of treason in the French army. Anti antisemitism at its best that ripped apart both French society and the worldwide Jewish community at the end of the 19th century. Ultimately he was acquitted and promoted but the damage was done and “ The Dreyfus Affair” will go go down in infamy.

Skip forward 125 years and Uriel his progeny was promoted in the IDF. “When I entered the gates of the IDF as a young soldier I carried this memory with me” said Uriel at the ceremony.

Not too dissimilar to each of us who carry the memory of our forebears with us — informing, affecting and hopefully inspiring our lives. Those

links in the chain.

The week we read the Parshas Behar and Bechukotai. Behar means The Mountain. The origin of the laws — the Torah —that was gifted to us over 3300 years ago. The event that forever changed the world and charted the course for the “illustrious chain”, that we are all linked to.

The Torah as the anchor with each of us celebrating and observing our Heritage and our identity — link by link stretching backwards and illuminating the forward — Dor L’dor!!

With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yehuda & Dina Kantor

P.S. SHAVUOT— the Festival when we received the Torah. Join us in Festive Celebration — Here.

Count Your Blessings!

Friday, May 1, 2026 - 10:00 AM

“Happiness is a journey not a destination”!

So true. Yet how does one journey the path of happiness? After all, it’s not as easy as clicking a switch or waving a wand — happiness requires conscious effort.

Not effort to be happy, rather, effort to allow space for happiness to emerge.

Currently we are in the days of the counting of the Omer. The Omer was a barley offering that brought up in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem on the second day of Passover. From that point and onwards — we count daily a complete 49 days till we reach the 50th day —at which time another sacrifice was offered. This sacrifice was one of wheat.

Today, we don’t have the Temple so we don’t actually offer this offering yet we still count each day and the symbolism is more pertinent than ever.

You see, barley is the first grain to ripen. The offering signifies the beginning of the new season of blessing. A new crop. A new gift.

Gratitude. Thankfulness. No enjoyment from the new crop without a profuse thank you to the source of this blessing. An offering of self and of crop — thank you Hashem.

Gratitude is a huge component in fostering happiness. No expectations. No demands. Gratitude. The recognition of blessing and fortune.

Back to the Omer. We are counting our blessings quite literally. Our lives fuller each day. A conscious meditation. Happiness.

So is that where the expression — “count your blessings come from”? No. But it’s where whoever came up with the expression got it from.

Where else if not from the Torah?

In life one can talk of the “troubled times” or one can focus on the blessings. The choice is clear and the resultant path is exactly what constitutes the journey.

I for one wish to proclaim with enthusiasm — thank you Hashem for all the blessings you have bestowed upon me, my family, my community and my People. I continue to count my blessings!!

With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,