Days after scenes of chaos at Chabad headquarters sparked a flood of antisemitic reactions on social media, a Chabad rabbi was invited to deliver the invocation on the floor of the New York State Senate in Albany last Wednesday, the Haredi news outlet the Rockland Daily reported.

Invited by state senator Bill Weber, Rabbi Shmuel Gancz, the director of Chabad of Suffern in Rockland County, cited the legacy of the Lubavitcher rebbe, the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, to remind senators of the weight of their responsibility. 

“As we face rising levels of hatred, antisemitism, and acts of terror around the world, and this week we marked 100 days of captivity of 136 innocent individuals, we gain inspiration from the words of Moses,” Gancz said. “‘You will have done what is incumbent upon you, so I will do what is incumbent upon me,’ says God.”

Gancz went on to pray for God to bless the country and state, and guide the legislators toward wisdom.