Flying High with Joy and Blessing

I am flying high!

I’m on cloud nine — thank G-d, our daughter Rochelle has become engaged to her wonderful Chosson, Dovvi Gopin, son of Rabbi Yosef and Miriam Gopin, the Rebbe’s Shluchim to West Hartford, Connecticut. My heart is overflowing with gratitude and joy. I welcome all your blessings and good wishes for this young couple — that they should build together a Chassidishe Jewish home, a home filled with light, love, and holiness, bringing Nachas to us their parents, and to the entire Jewish people.

When a child becomes engaged, our hearts open wide. We pray that the match be the right one — that the new couple build an everlasting edifice in Israel, filled with Torah and Mitzvos, with love, laughter, and Divine blessing. We parents Daven for the deepest Nachas — to see our children and their children walking proudly in the path of Hashem.

Friends shower us with Mazal Tovs and heartfelt blessings. But a Chossid has another source of blessing — one that reaches the highest heavens. For us, the ultimate blessing comes from our Rebbe.

Receiving the Rebbe’s Blessing

In earlier years, we would write directly to the Rebbe — describing the proposed match, asking for his guidance, approval, and blessing. Only after the Rebbe gave his consent and blessing would the engagement be announced.

Since the Rebbe’s passing in 1994, Chassidim have continued to seek his blessing by visiting the Ohel, the Rebbe’s resting place. There we write our letters, pour out our hearts in prayer, and place our requests by the holy Ohel. The Rebbe himself told us that in times when we cannot reach him directly, we should go to the Ohel, submit our notes, and he will find a way to respond.

And indeed — he does.

Over the past 30 years, I have been to the Ohel close to 2,000 times. Time and again, I have seen clear, miraculous responses — the Rebbe making sure I knew that my request had been heard, and that his blessing had been given.

Miraculous Signs of the Rebbe’s Presence

Last Motzoei Shabbos night, as we were preparing to go to the Ohel to ask the Rebbe’s blessing for this shidduch, something extraordinary happened.

Just before leaving, I received a message on WhatsApp from JEM — the organization that publishes daily photos of the Rebbe. The image they sent took my breath away: it was a picture of the Rebbe saying Veyiten Lecha, the prayer we recite every Motzoei Shabbos for blessings in the coming week — and there I was, standing right next to the Rebbe, davening with him from his very own Siddur!

I was floored. Here I was, about to go to the Ohel to ask the Rebbe for a blessing for this shidduch — and before I could even ask, the Rebbe had already sent me a clear sign: a blessing of Veyiten Lecha — “May Hashem give you…” All the blessings of heaven and earth!

Unbelievable.

But that was only the beginning.

After we finished Davening at the Ohel — my wife Tamara, the Gopins, the young couple, and I — we announced the engagement, said L’chaim, and began to make our way out. As I walked through the video room, where recordings of the Rebbe are continuously playing, I glanced at the screen — and froze.

Who was being shown speaking with the Rebbe at that exact moment? None other than my new Mechutan, Rabbi Yosef Gopin, the father of Dovvi, the Chosson!

I could hardly believe it. The Rebbe had answered my request before I even arrived — and confirmed it again after we had finished!

This, to me, was nothing short of a miracle. A living connection. A sign from Heaven that the Rebbe continues to bless, guide, and participate in the lives of his Chassidim.

The Rebbe and Avraham: A Legacy of Kindness and Faith

This week’s Parsha, Vayeira, could not be more fitting. It tells of Avraham Avinu’s dialogue with Hashem as he pleads for the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Hashem says, “Shall I hide from Avraham what I am about to do? For I know that he will instruct his children and his household after him to keep the ways of Hashem, to do righteousness and justice.”

Avraham’s greatness lay in his kindness — but more than that, in his commitment to educate his children to walk in the way of G-d, to be people of compassion and integrity. Even when pleading for Sodom, a place of unimaginable cruelty, Avraham sought some spark of goodness, hoping it might be redeemed. That’s the essence of a Jew — to search for the good, to plead for mercy, to bring G-dliness into a dark world.

But there’s another dimension. The Alter Rebbe teaches in Tanya that when two opponents struggle, the one filled with joy triumphs. Joy lifts us above opposition; it sweetens harshness. When we serve Hashem with joy, even life’s challenges are transformed into blessings.

This week, my heart bursts with that very joy — the joy of continuing Avraham’s mission.

To marry off a child is to take part in that sacred chain — to raise a new generation that will walk in the ways of Avraham: kindness, righteousness, and justice. This is why Hashem said, “I love Avraham” — because he creates continuity. Because he ensures that the Divine flame will never be extinguished.

From Avraham’s Tent to Ours

As I reflect on the miracles surrounding this engagement — the Rebbe’s unmistakable blessings and the signs of Divine orchestration — I feel deeply that this is the same love Hashem expressed to Avraham.

Avraham built tents open on all sides, welcoming every traveler. The Rebbe built a network of open tents — Chabad Houses — welcoming every Jew. And now, our children continue that mission, building their own home — a home of Torah, Mitzvos, warmth, and light.

I pray that Rochelle and Dovvi merit to add their link to the golden chain stretching all the way back to Avraham Avinu — that their home be filled with Chassidic warmth, with the joy and faith that dissolve every harshness, with overflowing blessing from Hashem, the Rebbe, and all generations before them.

May they bring Nachas and happiness to us, their families, to the Rebbe who continues to bless us, and to Avraham Avinu, whose children continue to illuminate the world with faith, love, and kindness — until the coming of Moshiach, speedily in our days.

Have a Mazal Tov of a Shabbos overflowing with joy and kindness,
Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Yosef Katzman