Actually, I had decided to skip writing my diary for a day because of an almost tsunami of recommendations to take it easy. After Montenegro and a very tiring journey due to annoying flight connections, I am now in Krakow with more than 130 educators from France, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Belgium, England,

The annual conference of shluchim – emissaries of the Rebbe – has come to an end. More than six thousand rabbis gathered to inspire each other. The gathering was impressive. What made the biggest impression on me was the rabbi who lost both his legs as a soldier but continued with great spirit from a

Diary Sept. 25, outgoing Rosh Hashanah, A normal rabbi is busy preparing his speeches for the synagogue services on Erev (the eve of) Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. In addition, he will assist his wife with the preparation of the elaborate and festive Yom Tov meals, which will of course be attended by guests.

The Alter Rebbe, the founder of Chabad Hasidism, the movement within Judaism to which I belong, was the regular weekly Baal Kore, the person who reads from the Torah. When he was not in Lyozna on the Shabbat when parsha Tawo (Deuteronomy 27) was read, as it will be this coming Shabbat, his son, who