a balloontwister’s aliya saga

We’ll get to that in a bit.
Its sunday morning, and I’m at work.
Its true… the rumors are true.. sunday is a WORK DAY!
arrghh…
well, I guess I got to get used to it.
Shabbos was fantastic… had My brother’s family over as well as the in laws who are still here… despite the behavior of the little ones.
WE davened at the carleback minyan fantastic! big crowd.. dancing… walking home from shul humming a Carlebach tune is a great way to come home to kiddush…
Approx, 30 minutes before shabbos I got a call from someone who wanted me to play drums for a concert/ kumzitz in Neve elan, near telshe stone for gush katif families.
I brought a set of drums hoping to play and meet some people… but… word got out.. .and they needed a drummer so … what the heck…
more about that later.
Shabbos morning we went to Aish kodesh and in the afternoon I took my father in law to the daf yomi in hebrew… I understood most of it. .. I think..
I gave my artscroll to my father in law, so I was flying almost solo.. but I am happy to say that I got alot of it…
almost as much as when I was learning with Litchy and fishy…
Shalosh seudos was at beis tefilla who made a special shalosh seudos for the new olim. It was very nice. Everyone from the shul made aliya at some point and they are very willing and happy to help new olim. They have alot of shiurim, learning.. and its very american there.
I met a former JEP monsey leader there, Loren Spiegelman who made aliya last year and is a big part of the shul in welcoming and helping new olim.
(He sends regards, Milch)
After shabbos we packed up the kids, inlaws, drums… and made out way to neve ilan…. There were about 200 people there….when we got there.. a mix of Ramat Beit shemesh people and gush katif people. In the carleback shul, where several other musicians were from, they announced the concert times, so many from the shul were there. Even the guy who kicked me out of his seat the week before was there..nice fellow.
My playing was OK. Not bad. Not great. It was good despite not knowing half of the songs.
The main thing was I didn’t embaresss myself in from of my family.. whew…
They were impressed.
Zehava my niece wanted to know if I ws better than my 14 year old nephew, who JUST started playing…
I told her I think I was better…
My brother dovid took Yoni and they were dancing along with everybody. It was nice to play and bring some simcha to there people. It made me feel good, but on the other hand. I felt sad that although these people were in a nice hotel, they looked like it will take a lot more GOOD to get them to feel better about their situation. We were able to leave and go home. They were stuck not knowing when they could go “home”.. Also, while we have a school “problem”, at least we have schools to choose from. There people had no idea where to send their kids to school bec. they have no permanent homes. and school starts this week…
There is alot of chesed you can do in israel…. unfortunately there is a huge need for it.
Today, I think the kids and in laws are heading out to kibbutz chafetz chaim, a amusement park with water rides… the hours switch between men and women…
so that should be interesting… I’ll tell you all how it went tommorrow..
well, I think thats it for today.
Have a great day and a shavua tov.
Good luck at softball, avromi, kenneth, et al.
Yudie