A Chabad-Lubavitch emissary and his co-emissary wife in Los Angeles is determined to fight an arson attack the Jewish way.

Rabbi Sholom Ber Rodal, co-director of Chabad of Mt. Olympus with his wife Rochela called on “all Jewish women and girls to light the Shabbat candles, bless your loved ones and ask for security and health for us and for the extended community” last week.

He also announced plans for a “Great Tefillin Wrap” on Sunday morning for men and boys over age 13, to take place in his Los Angeles neighborhood Jewish center.

The mitzvah campaign came in response to a vicious arson attack on the rabbi’s car in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

“We were awakened by the blaring of a car alarm and what sounded like gunfire, explosions and fireworks,” Rodal told Chabad.org. “It was 2 am. My wife and I ran out to see what was going on. To our shock and disbelief, we saw our car engulfed in a blazing inferno of fire.

“There were explosions coming out of it every few seconds. We immediately woke up the children from their beds and we ran with them outside, far down the street – fearful that the fire would spread to the house.”

The flames incinerated the vehicle, destroying prayer books and other holy items, including tefillin (phylacteries) and mezuzahs.

Arsonists incinerated the car belonging to Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Sholom Ber Rodal in Mt. Olympus, Los Angeles, in front of his home.

Police and firefighters responded immediately to the alarm and miraculously the damage was contained solely to the vehicle. Security cameras in the area provided a time line as to what took place in the moments prior to the conflagration.

“Two people can be clearly seen breaking into my car and setting it on fire with prepared materials,” the rabbi said. “It is very clear that it was a deliberate and targeted arson attack, and potentially more serious, pending the investigation.”

Although the Los Angeles Fire Department arson division has launched an investigation, there have been no arrests thus far.

“We feel pretty secure,” the rabbi said, noting that police had increased patrols in the area. “In Chassidic tradition, we are taught that everything that happens is for a purpose and for the lesson to be drawn to inspire us for the future,” Rodal mused. “What is the lesson here?”

Numerous people have already responded to his call for increased mitzvahs, he noted, with college students from the community posting photos of their activities on Facebook. Those who are currently in Israel on the Taglit-Birthright program showed their candle-lighting just prior to the start of the Sabbath because of what happened, he noted. A young man sent a photo of putting on tefillin.

“We will not deviate from our mission to provide care for the spiritual and physical needs of our dear community,” the rabbi asserted. “While we take the proper security measures, we know and trust that God is guiding and watching over us and that we are protected.”

A 27 year old Jewish man was arrested on Sunday morning at the entrance to the Temple Mount.

Police found Tefillin on his person.

When searching the young Jewish man before he went up onto the Temple Mount, the police discovered the man was wearing Tefillin on his arm.

Tefillin are generally worn during prayers. Despite an explicit court order allowing it, the police do not allow Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, the Jewish people’s holiest site, for fear of upsetting the Arabs.

A lawyer from the Honenu organization is working to free the man from jail.

Chabad will be running a special election day campaign. Outside every voting booth will be a Chabad Tefillin stand.

Cool.

Sometimes it takes an Israeli politician to tell a rabbi about how precious a pair of tefillin can be.

Thousands of Chassidic rabbis are still trickling out of the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in the wake of the worldwide Chabad Lubavitch movement’s annual international convention for its emissaries.

At least 5,200 of the rabbis from more than 80 countries around the world gathered for the 31st annual International Conference of Shluchim which ran for five days. The closing banquet was held Sunday evening at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein featured as guest speaker.

A former Soviet refusenik, Edelstein was sentenced in 1984 to three years in a labor camp.

Edelstein told the those at the banquet that for him, the pivotal moment in his life came when a guard in a labor camp tried to break his tefillin boxes over his knee. That, he said, was when he “lost it” and fought back — earning himself 15 days in solitary confinement.

“You would do the same if something so dear to you was being taken away,” Edelstein explained. It is ironic, he added, that today when no one is taking away tefillin, many Jews no longer know what they are.

“This is a different world, a dangerous world,” the Knesset Speaker said. “Less dramatic than being in a prison corridor with five guards,” but the mission of Chabad Chassidim remains the same — teaching Jews to know what tefillin and Shabbat candles are for.

It was for this purpose a small group of Chassidim embraced the challenge of the Lubavitcher Rebbe about 70 years ago, to become agents of transformation.

Today, some 4500 couples are dedicated to continuing that mission in 87 countries. “The Rebbe was looking to make radical change,” said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, chairman of the conference committee and a leader at Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters. This year alone, 400 new emissaries took up their posts and 200 applicants are pending.

Rabbi Dovid Dubov, Chabad emissary to South London, serves the Jewish community of Wimbledon and delivered “love” as the banquet’s keynote address.

“In tennis, love equals zero. But at Chabad of Wimbledon we say that if you want to raise a racquet, serve with love,” he said with a smile.

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, one of the Rebbe’s former aides and chairman of Chabad’s educational and social services division, noted the importance of the movement’s adherence to truth in Torah values, even above political correctness.

Israeli Ambassador to Jordan, Daniel Nevo, filed an official complaint to Jordan’ Foreign Ministry over the letter of condolence that Jordan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour sent to the families of the terrorists from the Har Nof Massacre. Those terrorists killed 5 people in a Har Nof synagogue during prayers.

The Jordanian parliament also held a moment of silence for the Arab terrorists who were killed in their terror attack.

In addition, Nevo delivered a compilation of antisemitic cartoon that have been recently published in Jordanian media, inciting even more antisemitism.

Last week, Jewish visitors to Jordan were told by Jordanian tourist police that their Kipas are forbidden in Jordan “for their own safety” and the yarmulkes were confiscated.

For at least the past year, Jordan does not allow Jews to bring Tefillin into Jordan with them, which are worn during morning prayers.

Religious Jews have been complaining that Jordanian officials at the border crossing purposely target religious Jews for harassment.

In Israel, some people are beginning to question the value of a peace treaty with a weak, undemocratic and openly antisemitic kingdom like Jordan’s.

Wounded IDF soldiers whose tefillin were destroyed in clashes with Hamas received a pleasant surprise in the hospital on Wednesday with a brand new set presented by Young Chabad, the Kikar Shabbat website reported.

Several troops told visitors in the hospital that they were without their tefillin, and the Lubavitch House in Paris responded quickly to help fulfill a request to replace them.

Members of Young Chabad visited the soldiers the same day with a visit and a gift of new tefillin.

One woman from Pisgat Ze’ev, in northern Jerusalem, said that her son, who suffered injuries that required the amputation of one leg, learned in Chabad while in Morocco.

“This is the most important gift for my son,” she said.