Rabbi Fishel's Blog

Dear Friends,

What a month it has been, overflowing with Jewish 

holidays and inspiration. From Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to Sukkot and Simchat Torah, the season was a whirlwind of meaning, reflection, forgiveness, joy, and renewal. We prayed, sang, gathered, and felt deeply connected to our community, to our purpose, and to something higher.

The feedback has been enormous. It’s been the largest ever, and also one of the most beautiful. The overflowing crowds, the camaraderie, the friendships, the singing, the gatherings together at the Sukkot festival, and then, to top it all off, one of the most amazing Simchat Torah celebrations with a huge, joyous crowd.

I want to take this moment to express our heartfelt thanks to every sponsor and to every volunteer who worked tirelessly behind the scenes. A special shout-out to our incredible security team, Tricorps Security, JVAC and Alex Marlowe, and to the Naples Police Department. And to my dear wife, Rebbetzin Ettie Zaklos, who always makes sure that every detail is done in the most incredible way. From meals and lunches to buffets and full set-ups, all while directing our preschool and managing everything with love and devotion.

And then, suddenly, it’s over. The decorations come down, and life slides back into routine. But this is where spirituality is tested, and where it truly comes alive. The holidays were never meant to lift just a day, they were meant to elevate the entire year. Their purpose isn’t to help us escape daily life, but to transform how we live it: how we speak to our children, treat our coworkers, handle stress, and show up for others.

There’s a beautiful teaching I love. When the High Priest concluded the Yom Kippur services, the law states he washed his hands and feet, removed the gilded vestments, dressed in his own clothes, and then he had to go home.

The question is, why does the law state he must go home? Where should he go? To a movie, a bar, the opera, the gym? The profound message is this: holiness is not withdrawal. Holiness is not stepping away from the physical world, it’s returning to it and transforming it. By going home, he carried the holiness of Yom Kippur into everyday life.

This is the true art of integration. Some people are holy in the synagogue but forget it at home, they insult, they denigrate, they act selfishly. Real holiness changes how we treat our family, how we conduct business, how we interact with others. It’s lived, not just observed.

Now comes the work, the real work: to turn inspiration into action. To let the compassion we felt in prayer become the patience we show in daily life. To let the unity we felt in celebration become the empathy we extend every day.

Keep the light of the holidays shining throughout the year. Continue the inspiration by joining us for Shabbat services. Come at 10:30, when the prayers are in full swing, and at 11:00 join as the Torah is carried out. Stay for the uplifting service and celebrate with our beautiful community lunch.

Most of all, come and join the ark, be part of the world-famous Chabad of Naples (many even say our building looks like an ark, albeit an upside-down ark, a reminder that sometimes the world and our blessings need a new perspective). Here you will find joy, connection, love, and family. Let this be your spiritual home in this challenging world and carry the spirit of the holidays into every day of the year. Translate that inspiration into daily practice, whether a few minutes of prayer, a thoughtful reflection, or a mitzvah.

Finally, I encourage you to consider joining the upcoming JLI adult ed course entitled: The Kabbalah of Meaning (how to live a life filled with meaning, joy and inspiration). Click here to register. Course starts NEXT Monday. We invite you to our upcoming Kabbalah course, as well as the celebrations and events we have coming up.

With love and blessings,

Rabbi Fishel & Ettie Zaklos

Welcome home!

737 days later.

So many emotions all at once as I watched the hostages come home. Pain and joy, heartbreak and healing.

Hostages returning home, falling into the arms of their families, alive. For two long years, we prayed and wept, we shouted and we whispered, we gathered and we acted, never giving up, never stopping our cry to Heaven. And now, Hashem has answered. Twenty souls have emerged from the darkest captivity, freed from the depths of evil.

I feel so deeply blessed to be part of Am Yisrael.

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who releases the bound.”

Yet even as we rejoice, our hearts ache.
For the souls who were taken. For the families who will never again embrace their children. For the soldiers still in danger. For the unbearable truth that murderers walk free.

Jewish hope is not blind or naïve.

It does not erase pain or pretend the world is unbroken. It is carved in stone and lies beside the shards of broken dreams. The secret of Jewish hope is that it holds grief and faith, fear and courage, loss and renewal side by side.

Two years ago, on Simchat Torah 2023, the Jewish world shattered. We danced through tears that night, refusing to let the darkness win. And now, exactly two years later to the very day, we will dance again, this time TOGETHER with the former hostages, TOGETHER as one community, and TOGETHER with all of Am Yisrael across the globe.

This is history. This is a victory of light over darkness, of faith over fear.
And this celebration, will be so much more special if you are here with us.

If you’ve never been to a Simchat Torah celebration before, I encourage you to join us at Chabad Naples tomorrow at 7:15 PM. Dance with the Torah that kept our people alive for millennia. Dance for those who didn’t come home, and dance for those who did.

At the Grand Simchat Torah Celebration, there will be something for everyone: special activities for children, singing and dancing, L'Chayim for adults, festive dinner - a true celebration.

With love, tears, and boundless gratitude,

Rabbi Fishel & Ettie Zaklos  

Dear Friends,

At the end of Moses’s life, having given the Jews at G-d's request 612 commandments, Moses is instructed to give them the last, commandment #613, a commandment that expresses how all of Judaism should be lived: 

“Now write down,” G-d says, “this song, and teach it to the Jewish people”.

According to tradition “this song” refers to the whole Torah, meaning that the last mitzvah is to write down the whole Torah.

But why is the Torah called a song? Is a Constitution a song? Haven’t we been reading a book of laws and commandments, not lyrics to a song?

By referring to Torah as a song, however, it is as if G-d were saying to us: “It is not enough that you study Torah cognitively as mere history and law. It must speak to you emotionally.”

Joy and melody are essential to Jewish living. Judaism should infuse our lives with joy; every mitzvah ought to bring new celebration into our life. Just like song breaks barriers and reshapes our hearts, so too must the Torah.

Another aspect to song is this: the first time you read a book, it is exciting. But most of us cannot read the same book more than a few times. Not so with music. The more we hear a melody, the more we appreciate it. It inscribes itself deeper in the grooves of our soul. Torah is a song. The more we study its melody, the more we love it.

Finally, the Torah is called a song because a song becomes only more beautiful when sung with many voices, interwoven in complex harmonies.

When you talk and someone else starts talking, what is that called? Interruption!

But when you are singing and someone else starts singing, what is that called? Harmony!

When Torah becomes an egocentric speech, Jews fight; “we interrupt each other.” But when Torah is studied as Divine music, we sing in harmony.

One of the beautiful musical events that took place this past summer involved Dudu Fisher performing in Israel. Beside him stood Agam Berger. We all know Agam Berger, one of the hostages who was freed. Remember, braids for Agam. She was the one who celebrated Shabbos and wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal before Passover. So standing beside Dudu Fisher, Agam is playing the violin. The violin she is holding was gifted to her right when she came out of captivity. It was a 130-year-old violin that once belonged to a Jewish musician who was murdered in the Holocaust. A gentleman, Tzachi Beck, who had restored it years ago, was waiting for someone special to give it to. When he read that Agam Berger was a violinist, he said, “This is who I want to hold this violin.”

This is not just about the violin. This represents the music of our people, the soul of our people that is passed down from generation to generation. The music that we sing in good times and bad times. Times of light, times of shadow. The tune continues. The tune does not surrender. The tune, its rhythm, its soul, our soul, our rhythm, our music, does not fade. It lives.

Just like the music of Agam and Dudu Fisher, our Sukkot and Simchat Torah celebrations bring this melody to life. This year, let us come together for two beautiful celebrations.

On Sunday, October 12, join us in the Sukkah for brick oven pizza, sushi, and live music, as we shake the Lulav and rejoice together. RSVP here: ChabadNaples.com/SukkotParty

Then, on Simchat Torah, October 14 at Chabad of Naples, let us bring back the melody, thank Hashem for the miracle of bringing our brothers and sisters home. RSVP here: ChabadNaples.com/Dance

Sukkot & Simchat Torah is when we recapture Judaism as song, when we bring the beat back into our lives. It is when we rediscover the 613th command—Torah as a melody, scored for many voices. The Torah is G-d's song, and we, the Jewish people, are His choir, the performers of His symphony.

Wishing you a Chag Sameach! Good Yomtov!

Rabbi Fishel & Ettie Zaklos