Lchaim!
December 18, 2005Shabbos started out wet… VERy wet… Rain .. finally friday night.. that went throughout the night.
Shabbos was dry though. CLoudy but dry. SO I guess we could have gone to yishi after all. Sara Baila is planning a chanuka “fun day” at yishi to try and get a few families to see the place and perhaps get the ball rolling.
We had a big bar Mitzvah shabbos. The son of the Rebbi so the place was jam packed and I ended up davening outside for mussaf. It was actually a nice experience. Davening by a stone wall was like davening at the Kotel. There was a nice kiddush afterwards and all the big wigs were there. Rav Soloveichik was there. I was shmoozing too much so when I got close to the kiddush area, the glenlivit was gone. You snooze you lose. oh well, Dry kiddush is ok. The rebbi joked that he was looking for the balloons on Monday night at the party. ( I think he said that, he said it in hebrew). Joking bec. he told the gabbai that I should NOT bring balloons. I was not surprised as some of the schools here have rules that restrict the “shtick” and entertainment. In Ramat Beit Shemesh there is huge range of affluence… or lack thereof. Some have alot, but many have nothing. I’m not talking about people with only 1 car or a house without a big lawn. There are people that have to take tzedaka and that can’t pay the electric bills… so I don’t have a problem with the takanah that some yeshivot have. It worked out ok, as I was able to leave early as I had a shiur that night.
After shabbos Dovid hosted a melva malka for the benefit of Chayenu, the Israeli Chai Lifeline. He had approx 18 people and while it was a bit small I was very impressed keeping in mind that we’ve only been here a few months. Dovid spoke, made alot of the food and it was very nice. Its not easy to “shakedown” people that you’ve just met. Rabbi Pinsky, the director spoke and there was a 10 minutes video from Rabbi Weinberger from Woodmere who spoke at the woodmere Chayanu melave malka which was put together by Robbi and fishy Shonfeld.
Well, I’m signing off. Enjoy your sunday…
U.D.
