From The Desk of Rabbi Yehuda - Chabad Lubavitch of Westport

Did You Notice?

Friday, August 29, 2025 - 10:00 AM

I found myself totally disoriented, unsure of where I was. It sounds dramatic perhaps, but what made it all the more noteworthy was the fact that I wasn’t too far from home.

You see, recently, the CT Department of Transportation in compliance with some Federal regulation, changed the exit sign numbers off the Merritt Parkway.

For decades I have been exiting at one number — this had now be upended. Exit 41 was now exit 20. Just like that!

It’s not that I can’t learn a new number, what struck me however, was how little I recognized and how disoriented I became speeding past Stamford and Greenwich or was I already in New York. All so confusing.

A simple question of how long till we get there became an existential question. Quite frankly “I don’t know”, was the only response I could muster especially since I actually didn’t know!

The founder of the Chassidic movement teaches that from everything that we notice in life we must learn something. It’s not difficult to realize that my disorientation was based on my reliance on a sign with a number not on surroundings and not on anything more substantive. A number can easily be changed and indeed it did change — my marker no longer there.

It turns out that although the truer signs remained unchanged —for decades they had gone un-noticed. They proved to be little help as a result.

What a powerful metaphor for life. Perhaps closer to home, as a Rabbi, I often muse about the under-appreciated elements of Jewish life and timeless wisdom contained in the Torah and gifted as an inheritance to each of us. It’s been cherished, preserved, studied and handed down generation to generation for millennia. No erosion and no changes. Constant, transcendent and relevant as ever!

As the true anchoring signposts of life, it’s the source of happiness, focus, fulfillment and contentment. Unchanged — it’s all there.

Yes, it is all there — we need only to notice!

With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom and with warm wishes for a Shana Tova,

P.S. The High Holiday schedule and RSVP will be released next week.

P.P.S. Partnership / Membership drive is now in full swing. We’d love to have your support — here

Practice Makes ...!

Friday, August 22, 2025 - 10:00 AM

“Practice makes perfect….”

Growing up my teachers would drill this into our minds. Practice practice practice because it makes perfect.

In turn, I would think — boring boring boring. Indeed, what’s the chances of something boring the first time becoming less boring the second time?

Practice is critical, no questions asked. Yet it seems to me that perhaps my teachers should have reinforced the truism that “practice makes permanent”.

The more one does something the more it gets inked into a way of life; a reality — a habit. The value of which can’t be overstated and is the cornerstone of Jewish life.

Judaism isn’t in the books. The books direct us how to live and conduct ourselves with a higher code — a transcendent code, an eternal and Divine code. Knowledge so highly prized in Judaism is so prized because it leads to action.

Or does it?

Precisely! It does if it’s done again and again and again and here we are thousands of years later continuing the practice!

Oftentimes we feel like our parents who emphasized the importance of something which felt somewhat nagging —yet here we find ourselves in the same position. The sacred and empowered position of repeating and repeating Dor L’dor because at the end of it all—practice makes permanent.

As we start to condition ourselves for the new Jewish Year, it’s a great time to ask ourselves, what practice will we enhance in our Jewish lives in the year ahead and repeat, repeat, repeat?

It’s a personal question to be sure yet rest assured that, practice makes permanent. How do I know? Well, we are here to tell the tale, stronger and more vibrant than ever — Am Yisrael Chai!!

With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yehuda & Dina Kantor

P.S. Registration for High Holidays at Chabad will open next week. Meanwhile, we are excited to open the Partnership / Membership drive for 5786. We’d love to add your name to the list - and thank you greatly for your support - here.

Pulling a Blank?

Friday, August 15, 2025 - 10:00 AM

Is the blank sheet of paper that we all enter life with, really blank?

Yesterday, as Dina and I welcomed our new grandson into this world (born to Rivka and Yitzchak Pruss), I naturally reflected about the blank sheet of paper that from first breath and on starts to fill up.

The blank paper with a line down the middle. The things we control and create on one side and the tools, opportunities and assistance we are gifted —on the other side.

Picturing these two columns I saw a long list on both side of this proverbial blank sheet. Achievements galore, the sky the limit. Yet that column was futuristic. What “will” become. The second column however was pretty full already, in the current. The first breath as the first entry add to that loving family, community and so much more — the paper was far from blank!

In this week’s Torah portion Moses makes what by all accounts can only be described as a bombshell statement — yet he says it in the most minimalistic manner.

“And now Israel what does Hashem your Gd ask of you? Merely to feel the sense of awe and fear of him”. How minimalistic to suggest that this is a mere request — let’s face it, it’s more like a lifetime pursuit. We all well know the challenge of fostering a true relationship with GD and maintaining it. It’s a struggle to say the least.

Yet that itself isn’t the bombshell. The nuanced inference from this statement is. You see the Talmudic Sages derive from this — that ALL comes from Heaven ASIDE for a true relationship with the Divine — the Transcendent. For that, one must work hard to achieve.

Simply put, all our opportunities, blessings and gifts regardless of who, what and where — are preordained. Who we become as an individual, the choices we make, the focus of what we do with the blessings and raw goods that are sent our way and that we work hard for — the respect, appreciation and sensitivity to the transcendent — that, isn’t preordained. It’s that searching and mastery of life that Moses is referring to.

The sheet of paper is most definitely not blank when we enter this world, nor is it blank upon the start of each day. We are gifted all that we need to transform this world to a goodly and Gdly place but that is in each of our hands!

With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,

Breathe In

Friday, August 8, 2025 - 10:00 AM

“The breath of life”.

Twenty thousand times a day, if not 25,000.

Each breath a gift, an opportunity laden with purpose and challenge — life!

Last night, sitting with released hostage Or Levy, the intensity of life, the absolute contrasted elements of living in the physical world was palpable.

The breath of life is is a quote from the Torah regarding the creation of humankind. First formed of the earth and then infused with the soul — the breath of life.

Breath and soul in Hebrew share the same letters. Each breath expressing yet another moment of purpose.

Or sat in captivity for 491 days. Starvation to the extent not seen by the Jewish nation since the Holocaust— evidenced by all upon his fortuitous return. Yet though he eats well nowadays it’s not without deep guilt and shame that there are yet friends of his that are still in captivity wasting away.

Despite this, Or is focused on his “why” which is what propels him forward and gives him his “how”. It’s not his line of course but it was taught to him by Hersh Polin Goldberg who also learned it from someone else. Alas, Hersh didn’t make it but he left Or with something to cling to as he thought of his 2 year old son Almog during his captivity.

Breathe. Feel the joy. Feel the heat, the sun, the sounds of life, the delicious flavors of your meal. Feel the pangs of guilt, perhaps regret but ultimately the empowerment of life; the responsibility and the opportunity —all perfectly expressed in the breath of life.

Incredibly, Or smiles a lot. He says he must smile. If he doesn’t smile then “it would have been better that he didn’t make it out alive from Gaza” — his quote.

Can one even understand what he’s saying? Hardly, unless you recognize the soul of life.

The soul. Encompassing more than words can articulate. Life, deeper, more beautiful yet more painful than the mind can possibly contain.

Ultimately we realize, the soul can contain what the mind can’t fathom. Breath the breath of life. Neshama.

Or is smiling. He’s breathing. He’s alive. We weren’t here merely to spectate. We all have a Gd given mission in the world.

Breathe the breath of life!

Picture Perfect

Friday, August 1, 2025 - 10:00 AM

Today is the last day of Gan Izzy. What an amazing summer it’s been. Unbridled Jewish pride at full steam, in a safe and secure environment — with joy, fun and engagement to the max. The perfect blend to creating lasting memories.

I’ve long contemplated the delicate balance between living an experience that fast turns into a memory as time moves on.

Photo taking reflects a similar dilemma. Snap or experience? Of course one can blend both but you get the point. Oftentimes we can be so obsessed with capturing the moment that we trade it in for the present which does little for the future.

This Sat night / Sunday is Tisha B’av — the 9th day of Av. It’s the saddest day in the Jewish calendar and a fasting day that lasts almost 25 hours. Our Holy Temples were destroyed and with that the onset of what is called exile.

To fully explain what exile is, is too intricate for a short column and on a basic level one need only to pen all the challenges the Jewish nation faces onto a small post it note and you can quickly start to formulate the definition.

Yet what’s truly incredible is that we’ve been mourning the destruction for literally thousands of years as if it’s a recent occurrence.

Talk about memory.

You can count on one hand moments that are still remembered thousands of years later — unless you are Jewish that is. After all, our entire year experience revolves around experiences and revelations of our collective nation throughout the millennia — good and not so good.

Turns out, it’s not the camera photo that guarantees memory it’s the actions that the memory evokes that does. Sort of like living in the present as the past informs — creating the future.

As parents, we diligently and creatively work towards Dor L’dor to create not mere photo memories, rather, enduring and foundational experiences that will be there in perpetuity and that’s the secret sauce of our eternal nation Yisrael.

Am Yisrael Chai!!

Rabbi Yehuda & Dina Kantor