Head Chabad Shliach to Illinois, Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, told Chicago radio WBBM 780 that understands why a USAirways Express captain felt obliged to divert his Kentucky-bound plane to Philadelphia Thursday.
In a post-9/11 climate, a person wrapping himself in a shawl and attaching black boxes to his arm and head would cause concern in those who don’t know of the tradition, he said.
Moscowitz said the teen who aroused suspicion on the flight, which originated at New York LaGuardia Airport, probably assumed that knowledge of the ritual was common.
“Before you begin, go to the flight attendant and say, ‘This is what I’m about to do. I want to make you aware of it. if you have any concerns please let me know,'” he said.
“I’ve personally always found people to be quite helpful and understanding.”
The radio station reported that Lubavitchers consider it a commandment from God to say morning prayers using the shawl and the black boxes, known as “tefillin.”
While an FBI spokesman said no one was in custody, the news was enough to propel the word “Tefillin” to the top of Google Trends Hot Searches list on January 21, 2010, with ‘Phylacteries’ as number two.
In addition, a 2007 video tutorial on youtube.com titled How to Put on Tefillin by Shliach Rabbi Zvi Drizin of Dallas, Texas, was utilized by news outlets to explain the concept of Tefillin to the curious public.
go zvi!!
Thank you Rab VIve, who wore Tefilin once in a flight before!
Good job, nice judge’s rob and nice dude’s hair cut.
Way to go Zvi, teach them all……
how do they find such rabbis.
She basically gave a plug to Chabad by saying Tefillin is used MUCH more commonly now than it was lets say 15+ years ago.
Obviously she recognizes the Rebbe’s accomplishment with the mivtza!
if you are to say 1 million jews saw the tefilin news on tv, you are essentially saying that every person in the country saw it and every yed was watching. i think you hipped up those numbers.
Before you criticize, I’ll have you know that what you’ll see in this clip occurred all over the world with shluchim.
100’s of millions of people the world over saw the story on TV. The amount of Yidden who were reminded of Tefillin is as follows: If Yidden are, say, 1% of a particular population, then for every 100,000,000 who saw the news on TV, we can assume that 1,000,000 Yidden were reminded about Tefillin! That is quite an accomplishment for such a small price. The Google search news simply underscores that this result was not merely superficial, rather people searched for more. In addition, how many shluchim got air time or newspaper coverage about Tefillin! Also, the same amount of… Read more »
why can’t these news services get some one normal to take teh interviews. Reconstructionist “Rabbi” that has worn tefilin on flights before. the media never calls the local chabad shliach to explain these type things. Why? come on shluchim, get in touch with your local news agency and make sure they know that can contact you with any questions.