I am on my way to Israel on El Al for a bar mitzvah of one of our Chabad members. It’s 11:30 p.m. and, along with 450 other passengers, I am trying to get as comfortable as possible for the long flight to the Holy Land. My mind is reeling; I still can’t believe what happened to me just a few hours ago.

I was regularly attending services daily, saying Kaddish in memory of my mother. JetBlue Flight 46 from Orlando to JFK, connecting to El Al to Israel presented a challenge.

The connecting flight schedules were very tight, so I arranged with my brother, Rabbi Aaron Levi Konikov, to take me from JFK to his Roslyn, N.Y. Chabad Center for afternoon services.