Prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, established a campaign to encourage Jewish men to don tefillin, phylacteries. Tefillin are a pair of black leather boxes, containing parchment scrolls inscribed with biblical passages, worn on the arm and head by adult males during weekday morning prayers.
At the time, I was studying at the Lubavitch Rabbinical Seminary, at Lubavitch World Headquarters. After regular study hours, the students organized regular travel to find Jews, and encourage the observance of tefillin, and other Divine observances. I agreed to visit certain army bases, and began to build a rapport with the Jewish soldiers.
After some time, a senior Christian army chaplain approached me. "You are doing such good work with the soldiers—we need you in the army. Who is your chief bishop? I would like to write him to ask him to send you to us."
I assured him I would pass on his message to my leader, and wrote a letter to the Rebbe. The Rebbe agreed that it was a good idea, and immediately I enrolled, beginning the first of many eventful years as an army chaplain.
A Message from the Rebbe, Via the Pentagon
| Mid-flight, the pilot instructed me to put on the headphones. Over the radio, I heard a voice telling me that the army, via the Pentagon, had just received a call from Lubavitch World Headquarters... |
In 1983 I received a phone call from the army. "It will be Hanukkah soon and we have Jewish troops in Grenada. We would like to deploy you."
At that time, "Operation Urgent Fury" was taking place on the Island, where the revolutionary government was overthrown in a military coup, and communist forces from Cuba seized control. US forces entered Grenada to rid the island of its communist dictatorship. I was contacted by the army to prepare for deployment which would be up to six weeks. I arrived on the island just prior to Chanukah.
Less than a week after I arrived in Grenada, I was flying in a helicopter, on a mission, together with other soldiers. Mid-flight, the pilot instructed me to put on the headphones. Over the radio, I heard a voice telling me that the army, via the Pentagon, had just received a call from Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, instructing me to call Rabbi Yehudah Krinsky, one of the Rebbe's aides....
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