I Had 2 Options to Do at 1:30 AM After the Kinus Banquet

By Rabbi Schneur Oirechman, Director of Chabad of Tallahassee

As you may know, the weekend of the Kinus Hashluchim—the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim—is packed with vital information sessions, meeting and catching up with friends and colleagues, and late-night Farbrengens. Every night while at the Kinus in New York, I went to sleep at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. and got up just a few hours later.

Per tradition, the night after the Gala Banquet, the highlight of the Kinus, the Shluchim join for the famous all-night informal Farbrengen in “770,” or 770 Eastern Parkway—the headquarters and spiritual epicenter of worldwide Chabad. Many consider it the “real” Kinus.

Well, at night after the Banquet, I had been so tired and exhausted at our Crown Heights lodgings that, after picking up my kids from their “Shluchim Camp” and putting them to sleep, I myself fell asleep. But at 1:30 a.m. that night, I woke up and thought to myself, “I have two options: Either go back to sleep for another few short hours (having to wake up at 5:00 a.m.), or join the Farbrengen in 770—which would mean another sleepless night and give me a consecutive third night of very little sleep.”

What would you do?

How would you decide which one is more important: More sleep to be ready for another packed day of a Chabad of Campus conference in Manhattan, or a night of inspiration at 770?

I found myself thinking back to few years ago when I had the same dilemma and my “Asei L’cha Rav” instructed me to attend the Farbrengen—telling me how important the Farbrengen would and how it was what the Rebbe would have wanted.

Years ago, the Rebbe had instructed the Chasidim, “Asei l’cha rav,” quoting from Pirkei Avos (Ethics of the Fathers) 1:6 where we are taught, “Asei l’cha rav,” or “Provide yourself with a teacher”—to have a mentor to avoid doubts. Life is simpler when we follow instruction in cases like these and other doubts in life.

So I applied that answer to my current situation and went to the farbrengen for a few hours.It was a powerful and inspirational few hours, and I was glad that I had decided to go.

The next day was very packed, what with the Conference, shopping in Crown Heights before going back home the next morning. Where we live on Shlichus, there itsn’t much kosher food available, so I had to run around and order everything that we’d need for Chanukah and so on. By the time I had finished, it was 11:00 p.m.—and our flight the next day was scheduled to depart at 7:48 a.m. I was now faced with another dilemma.

When I travel to New York, my first and last stop has always been at the Rebbe’s Ohel. Really needing sleep as I did at the moment, I figured that since I have TSA Pre-Check, I could wake up at 330 a.m. leave at 4:00 and make it to the Ohel for an hour or so with my kids before then going to the airport. Well, that’s what we did but, unfortunately, we had some unexpected delays and got to the Ohel a little after 5:00 a.m.

Once there, my plan was to leave the Ohel at 6:00 a.m., which would have given us about an hour-and-a-half before our flight.

However, due to more unexpected delays, we only left the Ohel at 6:15 a.m., which, I still figured, left us about an hour and fifteen minutes before our flight, which can be okay. What I didn’t expect were the delays to our Lyft ride due to traffic and construction en route to JFK.

Looking at our ETA, I saw that we’d be getting to the Delta terminal at 7:15 a.m., just 30 minutes before our flight was to take off.Knowing that the gate usually closes 15 minutes before departure, and my Delta app showing the flight leaving on time at, I now had no time for us to make it.

But then I decided to practice what Chassidus teaches and what my coach had helped me put into action: the power of positive thinking and its ability to literally change reality.

I started meditating on how we make the flight and, most importantly, staying calm—again, as my coach told me many times, “staying calm makes it come your way.”

It was not easy and required some internal processing, but, thank G-d, I was able to mentally get there.

When we got up to the TSA officer in line, I scanned our boarding passes—but our second son’s pass wasn’t working and the officer told us that we’d have to go back and print him another one.

Okay, what do I do now? Was all that positive thinking in vain?

Again I didn’t give up and continued practicing positive thinking and staying calm. Then I tried something else on top of that. Instead of using the Apple Wallet boarding pass, I decided to try the Delta app boarding pass. Now, there was no reason why that would be different: It was the same boarding pass. But I passed my test of positive thinking. It worked.

We got to our gate ten minutes before takeoff and, thank G-d, we made it.

See, here is the difference between Emunah (faith) and Bitachon (trust). Faith is after the fact: If I had missed the plane, I would have had faith and said, “It’s all for the good.” But trust comes into play before the facts: That’s when I’m supposed to have the trust that it will be okay, to remain calm, and to know that the blessings will come.

I promised Hashem that if I make our flight, I will share this story with others. And that’s why you’re reading it now.