Prior to departing to Washington, D.C., where he will meet with U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and other senior officials, Benny Gantz, Israel’s Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister, invited Rabbi Nahum Cohen, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Rosh HaAyin, to set up a mezuzah in a new office he had set up in his home.

After affixing the mezuzah, Ganz noted that doing so was necessary to help ensure the safety and security of Israel, a concept emphasized on many occasions by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. Documented in numerous Torah sources, the mitzvah of mezuzah is known to provide protection for the Jewish people and their homes wherever they may be. The Rebbe launched an international mezuzah campaign in 1974, following a terrorist attack on a yeshivah in Ma’alot, urging the Jewish people to ensure that every Jewish home should have kosher mezuzahs. Since then, Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries have inspired and helped countless Jews around the world to affix mezuzahs in their homes, offices and schools.

A day earlier, on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, Cohen blew the shofar at the Ganz home in Rosh HaAyin and was surprised to find Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gabi Ashkenazi, arriving for a meeting with Gantz. The two officials donned kippahs and together heard the sound of the shofar.