Dear Rabbi Jacobson.
I’m a musician that lives upstate New York. I usually play secular rock music. Last Thursday I was doing a performance in a bar in Poughkeepsie as israel started attacking and destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons.
Even though nobody in this bar looked jewish, during the performance I announced what was happening and asked that everyone should pray for peace in their own way and make a commitment to do an act of kindness to help make the world a better place, then I played the song hevenu shalom aleichem and explained its meaning that there should be peace.
The next night on Friday night I had a strange dream that Rabbi Groner called me and said the Rebbe wanted to thank me because what I said in the bar inspired a Jewish woman in the audience to light shabbos candles and her candle lighting in Poughkeepsie helped bring extra blessings into the world that protected people in israel and helped the Israeli air force succeed.
When I woke up shabbos morning I thought even though it was a nice dream it’s probably a nonsense dream because I’m not an important enough person to get a message from the Rebbe in a dream.
But today Sunday morning I got an email from a woman in Poughkeepsie who looked me up on social media and told me I inspired her by what I said and that she lit a shabbos candle to honor Israel and its the first time she lit one since her bat mitzvah 50 years ago.
I don’t know what to say. I guess it’s just important for everyone to know that we should always talk positively in public because we never know who will be inspired by listening.
-Anonymous
