1974: Arab terrorists invade the Holy Land, murdering and destroying property. At Ma’alot School, a busload of children from nearby Tzefat are brutally murdered. The world is shocked. The Rebbe calls for a strengthening of spiritual defenses, emphasizing the mitzva of mezuza.

At one of many public addresses on the subject, the Rebbe related: “I received a call from Tzefat. The caller checked the mezuzos at the yeshiva where the children had been studying and seventeen mezuzos were found non-kosher. Seventeen children from that yeshiva were killed.

“G‑d forbid to say,” the Rebbe continued, “that it was the absence of kosher mezuzos that caused these children’s deaths. Heaven forbid! However, just as a soldier must wear a heavy helmet to protect himself from enemy bullets, likewise, the mezuza protects the Jew. The helmet may be heavy and costly, and it may even disturb one’s concentration.

“If he does not wear the helmet and is hit by enemy fire, it is the enemy who killed him, not the lack of the helmet. Yet wearing the helmet would have saved him…”

-Mezuza Campaign Flyer, Chabad House, Johannesburg

“Better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.”