I thought being pulled over with an unknowingly suspended license was bad a couple of weeks ago, but this week takes the cake. It has been the craziest week imaginable.
We were hosting eight severely wounded IDF soldiers in New Jersey for one of our incredible ten-day retreats. It began with the stress of the snowstorm and not knowing if their flights would be cancelled, but everything got on track, albeit one day late.
These young men deserve the best of the best. They are the most selfless heroes who have given themselves—their body, their minds, their health—for the Jewish people.
We lined up a program packed with inspiration, therapy, exciting activities, and community events.
Friday night, we hosted an unbelievable Shabbat of gratitude. Three hundred people gathered to embrace these hero soldiers—to sing, to cry, to say thank you. The unity in the room was electric. You could actually feel it.
Then came Purim, and across all our Purim parties we hosted 1,500 people and read the Megillah 59 times!
And while all of this was happening here … the war in Israel erupted.
My son is studying in yeshiva there, and on Monday, the dean called me.
“Your son wants permission to leave yeshiva and go to Efrat to make people happy for Purim. We take zero responsibility for him once he leaves the walls of our school. If he leaves, he’ll basically be dodging missiles.”
I think most parents would say “absolutely not!” but I said yes.
Why? Because I believe Israel is the safest place on the planet. Not because there are no rockets (there are too many to count!), but because it is the epicenter of Divine Providence.
Meanwhile, my brother and sister-in-law who live there are texting the family chat every hour throughout the night. 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m … you get the picture.
“We can’t sleep.”
“We’re running to the shelter again.”
“This is crazy.”
“We feel like zombies.”
In fact, pretty much everyone in the entire country feels like zombies at this point, because the entire country is on the front lines of a mega war.
When I do Zoom meetings with my team in Israel, ten minutes in and they suddenly say, “Gotta go!” and I hear the distant boom of missiles while they run to the shelter.
And if all that wasn’t crazy enough, on Thursday morning I woke up to the wildest headline yet:
“Chabad is responsible for the Iran war.”
At first, I thought it was a belated Purim joke.
But then I watched the clip and listened as media personality Tucker Carlson seriously accused Chabad of starting the Iran War.
I was outraged. And then I started thinking.
Is Chabad responsible?
Yes. Of course we are. Just not in the way people think.
This war did not begin in 2026. It did not begin with missiles or politics or headlines.
This war began more than 4,000 years ago. It is the ancient struggle between good and evil, holiness and corruption. It’s the age-old battle between a world that recognizes G-d and a world that tries to erase Him.
Our mission is to fuse the two and create a space where G-d feels at home on this physical earth. When we accomplish that, we have won the war and reached our goal: the coming of Moshiach and the building of the Third Holy Temple.
Our mission hasn’t changed in thousands of years. We battle every day! Not with tanks and weapons, but with mitzvot.
When a Jew puts on tefillin in China, he is unleashing spiritual nuclear power into the world.
When a woman lights Shabbat candles in Melbourne, she pushes back darkness.
When a Jew keeps kosher in New York or London, he strengthens the side of holiness.
Every Torah class, every coin given to tzedakah, every Shabbat table filled with guests, every minyan, every pair of tefillin wrapped … are all part of the war effort.
The Talmud describes that before the coming of Moshiach, Esav will defeat Persia. The current events are not random or chaotic. They are orchestrated by G-d. Every piece is moving into place, spurring history towards its Divinely ordained climax.
If being “responsible” for the war means believing that evil will not win …
If it means insisting that goodness will ultimately triumph …
If it means dedicating our lives to Torah, mitzvot, and transforming the world…
… then yes! We accept responsibility.
Because this is so much more than a geopolitical conflict. It is the final chapter of a very old story, and we’ve been waiting millennia for the outcome: Redemption.
May it happen very soon! Amen.