Author Levi Shmotkin talked with Newsmax recently about his 2024 book which chronicles the inspiration derived from American Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, more widely known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the preeminent Jewish voice of modern times, whose 103rd birthday would have been April 5.
Shmotkin told "Newsline" on April 1 that "Letters for Life: Guidance for Emotional Wellness from the Lubavitcher Rebbe," which took him five years to research and write, resonates in the aftermath of Iranian-backed Hamas' terrorist attack in southern Israel that resulted in the massacre of more than 1,200 Israeli civilians, with more than 250 others taken hostage.
"There's a broader lesson here for all of us," Shmotkin said. "If we go through a powerless experience of suffering, whether it be an illness, a broken relationship, a loss of a loved one, and we feel helpless, we feel down, we feel lost, so, of course, the first step is the step of healing of connecting to the story.
"But the next step is to try to find some higher purpose, how that can help someone else to go through a similar suffering, or someone else, whether it's a hostage or an illness and to find that higher meaning that allows us to heal in a way that's entirely different than just keeping it to ourselves."
Shmotkin relayed the story of Israeli fighter pilot Menachem Eini, whose plane was shot down in 1970 by Egypt and taken hostage during the War of Attrition, which bridged the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Upon his return after 40 months in captivity, Eini sought Schneerson's counsel in New York because of the emotional toll being a hostage took on him.
"He comes back [to Israel], he feels devastated, he feels dead inside and, of course, reading this after Oct. 7, you know, you're thinking about what you're seeing on the ground with all these hostages coming back home," he said. "And a friend of his told him, 'Why don't you go visit this Lubavitcher Rebbe, this Jewish stage in Brooklyn. Sohe spends 45 minutes [with Schneerson] going through his time in captivity. And at the end, the Rebbe gives him a tool. He says, 'Why don't you write a book about your time in captivity?'
"Unfortunately, you won't be the last hostage of Israel, and future hostages will gain from having read the suffering and pain that you went through. It will make their experience easier to navigate. And of course, I wrote this before Oct. 7, and I'm reading it today and shudders go through me."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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