Accidental YouTube sensation Rabbi Mendel Kaplan has led a Toronto Chabad for 25 years

(JNS) - Rabbi Mendel Kaplan still remembers the day in 2016 after morning prayers when congregants were talking about a woman, whose video of herself laughing while wearing a Chewbacca mask had gone viral on YouTube.

Kaplan, 52, the religious leader of the 25-year-old Chabad Flamingo in Thornhill, a suburban district in southern Ontario, Canada, figured that it was ridiculous for a clip of someone wearing a "Star Wars" accessory to garner so much attention.

"If people can watch narishkeit like this, maybe it's a sign that I'm supposed to be doing something positive," he told JNS he recalled th...