This week’s IllumiNations — Issue 230, Parshas Naso 5786 features Rabbi Shlomo and Soshi Litvin of Chabad of the Bluegrass in Lexington, Kentucky.
The issue shares several powerful moments from Rabbi Litvin’s shlichus in Kentucky. He helped pass a law protecting Jewish burial for unclaimed bodies, pushed forward the Rebbe’s Moment of Silence campaign, and turned a rushed trip to the Kentucky Capitol into a chain of hashgacha pratis that led to a menorah lighting in Ashland, tefillin for a Jewish judge, and later tefillin for John Rosenberg, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor.
It also tells how, in the early years of Chabad in Lexington, Rabbi Litvin fought to gather a minyan for a visitor saying kaddish, even while facing city pressure and financial trouble. That challenge led to an unexpected $36,000 donation that helped strengthen the Chabad House. The issue ends with a Sukkos story: after the sukkah collapsed in heavy rain, local children helped rebuild it, and soon after Rabbi Litvin received a surprise $10,000 donation after asking the Rebbe to “show me you love me.”
This week’s DollarDaily donations went to shluchim and Chabad centers including Lev Chabad Wolfson, Lubavitch of Iowa, Alaska Jewish Campus – Chabad Lubavitch, Chabad Lubavitch of Ames, Chabad of S. Lazare, Canada, Chabad of Pinellas County, and Chabad Varna, Bulgaria.
