Weekly Chasidic Story#1476 (5786-27) 6 Nissan 5786 (March 23, 2026)

"Invading Syria"

The Lubavitcher Rebbe presented him with a list of thirteen campuses and said, “I’ve made all the arrangements myself. Everything is taken care of. I’ve spoken to all the deans…”

Why This Week? 1) Saturday Night-Sunday, 11 Nissan, is the anniversary of the birth of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in1902. 2) Fifty-plus years later, we are again at war.

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Invading Syria

In the 1970s, Mr. Nash Kestenbaum was President of the National Council of Young Israel, and as such he had extensive dealings with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, for Jewish outreach was very important to him. However, since, according to him, outreach was not Young Israel's main objective, he felt that it was better to channel it through Chabad. He gave a lot of support to Chabad and the Rebbe in this regard.

The Rebbe sent him off on various assignments. Often he drove off to Albany, the capital city of New York State, and the seat of its government, on a mission for the Rebbe. When he came back, he and the Rebbe would meet for hours.

He also arranged funding for Lubavitch efforts in Central and South America and, at the behest of the Rebbe, he opened a chain of kosher kitchens on college campuses under the Young Israel name.

At first, Kestenbaum didn't want to do it. He said he had enough on his plate already. But the Rebbe kept nudging him. After a certain point, the Rebbe presented him with a list of thirteen campuses and said,

"I've made all the arrangements myself. Everything is taken care of. I've spoken to all the deans, and everything is in place for the kosher kitchens to open up. We have the locations for you on campus; we have cooks. All we now need is the Young Israel name and Young Israel funding."

Hearing that, Kestenbaum agreed. He said, "I don't really want to do this because such activities are not a Young Israel priority, but if the Rebbe himself went out and made all the arrangements, how can I say no?"

Even Chabad people in those cities did not know that these kitchens had been opened at the behest of the Rebbe, and as a result, there was cooperation between the two organizations.

His son David revealed: "My father could never say no to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Once, he was doing an appeal for the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, and he brought me along. I was surprised that, in the middle of his speech, he started talking about Taharas Hamishpacha--the Jewish Laws of Family Purity--and the importance of having children.

"Afterwards, I asked him, 'Why are you doing this? You're supposed to be fundraising for the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach.'

"He said that the Rebbe and Rav Y. Soloveitchik both asked him to go on a campaign across North America convincing people to keep Taharas Hamishpacha and to have children, because the Jewish people needed the next generation."

In truth, Nash Kestenbaum had many lengthy meetings with the Rebbe relating to this and to other assignments the Rebbe gave him, but he kept all that private. Even when people asked him, "Why were you with the Rebbe for so long? What did the Rebbe say to you?" he wouldn't say anything. His opinion was that you can never accurately tell over what a great Torah sage said.

But there is one story that he did tell, and it is a remarkable story.
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In 1973, while Mr. Nash Kestenbaum was leading Yom Kippur prayers in his synagogue, the Young Israel of Long Beach, he was interrupted by an urgent message: Israel had been attacked and was at war, and that he was needed immediately in Washington.

He stopped the prayers and the local police rushed him to Long Beach Memorial Hospital where a helicopter was waiting on the roof, ready to take him to the Kennedy Airport for a flight to Washington.

Once he arrived there, he met with President Nixon's Chief of Staff, with a number of generals and whoever else was necessary. His task was to arrange an airlift of weapons and military equipment to Israel that very day.

After he had accomplished what he had been asked to do by Golda Meir, who was Prime Minister at the time, my father called various Jewish leaders, including the Rebbe, to inform them what was going on. He told them how badly the first day of the war went, that Israel was in danger of losing the war, and about the airlift that had been arranged.

Hearing this, the Rebbe said to him, "Don't worry, everything is going to be fine. They are going to march on to Damascus."

He responded that he didn't think this was likely, considering the terrible casualties that Israel had suffered in the first day of the war. In fact, my father said, the country was in danger of being overrun - the situation was dire.

But the Lubavitcher Rebbe insisted, "They are not going to be overrun. They're going to be so successful; they're going to march on to Damascus."

So Kestenbaum took the Rebbe at his word, and he was relieved that all would end well and thrilled that the Israeli army would win and even march on to Damascus.

When it was over, he called the Rebbe again and said to him, "Nu, what happened? They stopped forty kilometers away from Damascus; they didn't march on to there at all."

In response, the Rebbe became very upset. He said, "Is it my fault that Henry Kissinger intervened and stopped them from going forward?" (Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State [i. e. Foreign Affairs] in the Nixon administration.) "Had it not been for him, they would have been able to march on to Damascus."

Can you imagine if they had taken Damascus, the trump card that they would have had for negotiations? There would have been peace forever…."
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Source: Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles of ASCENT-in-Tsfat from an mailing of JEM - Here's My Story on August 28, 2014.

In the 1970s, Mr. Nash Kestenbaum was president of the National Council of Young Israel, during which time he had many interactions with the Rebbe. His son, Mr. Dovid Kestenbaum, recalled aspects of their relationship in an interview with JEM recorded in his home in Toronto in June 2012, upon which the above adaptation is based.

Why This Week? 1) Saturday Night-Sunday, 11 Nissan, is the anniversary of the birth of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in1902. 2) Fifty-plus years later, we are again at war.

Biographical note:
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (11 Nissan 1902 - 3 Tammuz 1994), became the seventh Rebbe of the Chabad dynasty after his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, passed away in Brooklyn on 10 Shvat 1950. He is widely acknowledged as the greatest Jewish leader of the second half of the 20th century. Although a dominant scholar in both the revealed and hidden aspects of Torah and fluent in many languages and scientific subjects, the Rebbe is best known for his extraordinary love and concern for every Jew on the planet. His emissaries around the globe dedicated to strengthening Judaism number in the thousands. Many hundreds of volumes of his teachings have been printed, and hundreds of English renditions too.

Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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