Regards from New York
  
I write this email to you from Chabad’s World Headquarters in Brooklyn, NY where I am joined by thousands of colleagues and friends at our International Conference of Shluchim; an annual reunion of international magnitude, bringing us together to reconnect, recharge and refocus.
 
Though each session and gathering carries so much energy, I would like to share the most inspiring moment of the entire convention thus far:
 
As you might remember, one year ago, a terror attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai claimed the lives of the young Rabbi Gavriel and Rivki Holtzberg. Yesterday, one year later, a Torah scroll was completed in their memory. Who wrote the Torah scroll? Each letter was written by a Chabad Rabbi from around the world (yes, I wrote a letter as well). The Torah’s final letters were then written by the fathers of Gavriel and Rivki.
 
The majestic scroll was then wrapped and escorted by a crowd of 6,000 of us dancing across one of Brooklyn’s main boulevards, Eastern Parkway. As that scroll was lifted into the air, we suddenly felt Gavriel and Rivki Holtzberg back with us. All 6,000 of us were transported to a world where time and space, matter and spirit, heaven and earth, were totally elevated.
 
What a powerful lesson - transforming tragedy into joy and darkness to light. So as we enter this Shabbat, I’d like to share this message with you and encourage you to add a little more light to the world by doing a mitzvah in memory of Gavriel and Rivki.
 
Shabbat Shalom,
 
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick