Reuven Kasten, left, at the gravesite of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Courtesy of Leviimart.com

By Louis Keene October 31, 2024

As the Los Angeles Dodgers mounted an improbable, at-times bewildering comeback against the Yankees in Wednesday’s Game 5, sealing World Series victory over their famous rivals, Fox broadcaster Joe Davis wondered aloud whether the “baseball gods” were tilting the scales.

A competing theory — of comparable seriousness, we think — emerged on Thursday: The son of the Dodgers team president had prayed at the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave.

A photo circulating in Chabad community media showed Reuven Kasten, the son of the team’s president and co-owner Stan Kasten, wearing a Dodger cap and holding an open prayerbook at the grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson on the morning of Game 5. A few hours later and about 15 miles away, Kasten’s Dodgers were hoisting a trophy at Yankee Stadium.

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And there’s more: The game seemed to turn only when a Jewish good luck charm showed up at the stadium. And the final score seemed to contain a Lubavitcher’s wink. Just coincidence, of course — unless?

Chabad mystique

Praying at the graves of righteous people, the Talmud says, gets results. So it makes sense that Schneerson’s grave, known as the Ohel, is among the holiest — and most trafficked — sites in Chabad tradition.

The Ohel’s mystique draws Jews of all backgrounds from across the world to the southeast corner of Queens, where many leave letters for the Rebbe at the foot of his tombstone; in recent years, the pilgrims have also included celebrities and politicians. Legends abound about prayers there being answered in miraculous ways; even the packaged chocolate-chip cookies offered in the Ohel visitor center — which is open 24/7 — have become talismanic to some of the Rebbe’s many followers.

Kasten, who is a member of the Chabad movement, said in a text message that he was mostly praying for his family during his visit Wednesday morning, but that he’d “included a word” for the Dodgers. Moshe Frank, Kasten’s old friend from yeshiva, swung by to capture the moment and tweeted the photo.

Four innings into Game 5, Kasten’s prayers appeared to have gone unheeded. The Dodgers, up three games to one in the series, didn’t have a hit. And the Yankees had knocked their starting pitcher from the game after just four outs.

Enter Frank, Kasten’s yeshiva buddy, with a Jewish good luck charm. Kasten’s seven kids had requested the cookies — they’re known as Ohel cookies, and you can only get them there — but Kasten had forgotten to grab them during his visit to the grave. So Frank, who runs an art gallery in Brooklyn, collected about 10 from the Ohel’s visitor center and spirited them up to the Bronx.

Prayers answered

“When I came to the game, they were losing 5-0,” he told me. Frank handed off the cookies to Helen Kasten — Reuven’s mom; Stan’s wife — at stadium security. Almost immediately, the action on the field went haywire. “I don’t know if this is too superstitious, but I could send you the time stamps,” Frank said.

With the Dodgers batting in the top of the fifth inning — and Frank still loitering in the parking lot — Yanks’ Aaron Judge dropped a routine line drive to center field — his first error of 2024. Then the New York shortstop botched a throw. And finally, with the bases loaded and two outs, a miscommunication on a cue-shot ground ball to first gave the Dodgers their first run of the game.

Two batters later, the game was tied. The Dodgers took the lead in the eighth inning and won 7-6.

There was one more easter egg for Jewish fans: Eagle-eyed Twitter users pointed out that the Dodgers’ standard box score columns — runs, hits, and errors — tallied 7, 7, 0. The number 770, of course, holds special resonance in Chabad circles as the address of the movement’s headquarters, 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, originally the Rebbe’s home.

I asked Kasten what he made of all this. He didn’t want to wax spiritual on the win, or the numbers — at least not to a reporter.

“Ha, honestly, this meme has gotten a little out of hand,” he wrote back. “It’s interesting, though.”

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