Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Could Tefillin Booth Propel Chicago Cubs to World Series Miracle in Game 7?

If at first you don’t succeed — wrap, wrap again.

Chabad Rabbi David Kotlarsky, who offers Chicago Cubs fans the opportunity to don tefillin at a booth outside of Wrigley Field, was at it again this year, as Wrigley hosted its first three World Series games in 71 years.

Kotlarsky, co-director of Chabad of East Lakeview on Chicago’s North Side, has been offering fans spiritual support and help wrapping tefillin since the start of last season. The home team made it as far as the National League Championship Series in 2015 before being swept aside by the New York Mets.

The Chabadniks set up shop again this year, with notably better results: The Cubs won the NL pennant to earn a berth in the Series against the Cleveland Indians and a shot at their first championship since 1908.

Alas for Chicago fans, their team fell to a 3-1 deficit.

As the Series returned to Cleveland, Kotlarsky could only watch from home and pray that his team, well, finds a way to wrap up the championship in seven games.

Now after winning two straight the Cubbies need one more win in a make or break Game 7.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.