Dear Friends,
Last week’s message seemed to truly resonate. Many 
of you wrote, called, and shared your warm reactions. Morris Herstein even came to me with a printed copy of the family photo. It is now framed in my office. Thank you for celebrating with us like one mishpacha.
People asked where we all stayed. The joke was that it was a “mansion.”
In truth, it was simply a house with enough beds for everyone. I wouldn’t accuse it of being overly spacious, but that was never the point. It was full to the brim with what makes a home: love, laughter, stories that went late into the night, learning and davening together.
We also went to visit the resting places of my brother, my nephew, and our grandfather. These moments of tears and memory reminded us how we continue to include them in our lives.
For those days, we were beautifully set apart from the world. Just our family, our food, our voices, our souls.
This week the Torah says: "כִּי־תִבְנֶה בַיִת חָדָשׁ... וְעָשִׂיתָ מַעֲקֶה לְגַגֶּךָ".
When you build a new home, make a fence around the roof.
On a practical note, this verse is very real to me. Our Big Build rooftop project is finally coming together, and the city requires a parapet wall to a precise height. I know the measurements better than I ever planned to. It is exciting to watch it rise each day and I can’t wait to share it with you and to host beautiful events there.
But the Torah is teaching more than construction codes.
A “new home” is that moment in life when you have arrived. When you’ve accumulated physical blessings. You have a driveway for the car, a wall for the flat screen, a shelf for the silver, perhaps even a watch collection or a wine cabinet. Baruch Hashem, enjoy the blessings. Then build a fence.
Do not let possessions define you. Do not get caught up in them. Let them serve you, but never become you. That was the heartbeat of our reunion.
If you walk into my parents’ home in Detroit, you see a framed line that shaped our family: "אידישע רייכטום". Jewish wealth is children and grandchildren who walk in the ways of Hashem and bring light to the world.
On our shirts last weekend was one simple number, 23161. My parents’ home address. A house. But the wealth inside it was never square footage. It was faith, kindness, guidance, and the joy of generations.
So yes, build houses. Accumulate physical blessings. But build homes even more. Put a fence around what is precious.
Protect the Shabbos table. Guard the tone of our speech. Choose mezuzah, Friday night togetherness, learning that uplifts, and acts of kindness that leave deposits in the soul. These are the fences that keep our highest values from slipping off the roof.
And ask yourself: what fence can I put up in my own life to protect what matters most? Is it setting aside time for family without distraction? Is it carving out a moment each day for Torah study or prayer? Is it choosing kindness over anger in a heated moment? Each of us can build a fence that reminds us of who we are and keeps the blessings where they belong. Inside our homes and inside our lives.
Here at Chabad of Naples we try to be that kind of home. A place where love and light are real, where families grow stronger, where we remember those we miss and carry their legacy forward.
As the High Holidays approach, come home. Bring your family. Bring your whole self. May Hashem bless your house with a good fence and your home with the truest wealth of all. May we soon merit to see all the hostages safely returned to their families and complete peace in the Land of Israel and throughout the world.
And let us never forget the simple truth Art Buchwald once wrote: “The best things in life are not things.”
With love and blessing,
Rabbi Fishel and Ettie Zaklos
