This week marks Sukkot, the holiday of booths (or huts). The seven-day Festival of Joy comes begins tonight, October 13, at sunset, commemorating the Clouds of Glory that G-d protected the Jewish people with during their travels in the desert following their exodus from Egypt 3,331 years ago.

One hundred and fifty community members gathered to break ground and lay the cornerstone of the new Feldman Campus for Jewish Life and the Tabacinic Chabad Center at Chabad of Clearwater, Florida

They come from public schools, day schools, and yeshivahs, from homeschool and from no school. Fewer than half have diagnosed disabilities. Others are academically gifted, but socially challenged. Many are anxious or discouraged. And Baila Gansburg, principal of South Florida Jewish Academy (SFJA), believes in each of them.

The highest moment, for me, came at the end of Yom Kippur, when—after fasting for twenty-five hours—we affirmed loudly in unison, with all our energy, Shema Yisrael, and then, thrice, Baruch Shem, and finally, Hashem Hu HaElokim, seven times. This experience was unlike anything else I have ever experienced—the collective declaration of non-resistance, the articulated relinquishment of the illusion that life is in our control. It was profoundly liberating.

Humans have been trying to hide from G-d ever since the days of Adam and Eve. We know it can’t be done, but we try to do it anyway. In my own life, I procrastinate, letting duties of the heart pile up like unopened bills on the kitchen table. Eventually, I realize I’m just fooling myself. Futility of futilities, writes Ecclesiastes. Alas, it turns out that resistance, too, is futile!

Judge Jacek Blat of the court of Krakow ruled today that the Izaak synagogue must be returned to Chabad of Krakow and reopened to the Jewish community. Run by Chabad, the Izaak shul has become a hub for the local Jewish community and the thousands of visitors who come daily to pray, study, and procure kosher food, among a host of other community activities.

In October, Rabbi Sholom and Chaya Block will be packing up the home they’ve lived in since their marriage eighteen months ago and setting out to serve the Jewish communities in Allen and McKinney, Texas. The Blocks will make history as the fiftieth Chabad couple serving the state of Texas.

It is known as the birthplace of the Hippie Movement (and counts some well-known Jewish hippies in its history), and on Sunday, the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco celebrated the opening of its first permanent Chabad center.

Chabad of Charlotte welcomed dignitaries and locals to the “Grandest Opening” of their stately, six million dollar campus on a balmy Sunday evening in September. At its first official event, the Epstein Family Chabad Jewish Center hosted a chic reception for adults and a concurrent children’s carnival. Over 800 people participated.

When she was almost two weeks old, Gila and I boarded an early morning Delta flight bound for my mother’s bedside. We repeated the trip twice more, visiting every two weeks like clockwork. I passed my sister and brother in transit during those two months; always someone at her side, as she had always been by ours. When Gila was eight weeks old, I drove my kids halfway across the country for what was unknowingly, and ultimately, goodbye.