a balloontwister’s aliya saga

Wow, a busy weekend….
Parents, Brother, sister, inlaws, nephews, nieces, Friends from Staten Island, Litchy…..busy… just jam packed…
The capper was the Sheerei Shalom concert that Yudi Zuller puts together to raise money for terror victims in Israel. Its interesting how living there we don’t think about it alot. We have so much on our minds in Israel. Our OWN security. Gush kativ refugees. Elections. I also see how the concert has taken a different tone. Its a bit more festive and less somber… for better or for worse.. I’m undecided as to how I feel about that. On the plus side with the concert and with all the money being raised the victims in Israel must feel that they are tops in our minds and it gives them chizuk. It was only a few weeks ago that I saw the COhens on Purim. A family that was on a few slides in the slideshow last night. I thank g-d that they look ALOT better then they did on the slides. The kids are healthy. Only the little one has any “major” noticible damage. Without Yudi and Zalman Indig I never would have met them. My kids would never have met them. And we wouldn’t have this tremendous bond that we share. I strongly urge everyone who goes to israel to take just a few hours out of their trip to visit a family that can really use chizuk. It will be the highlight of your trip. I guarantee it. You’ve been at the kotel. You’ve been to ben yehuda. You’ve seen Masada. You’ve been to all the major places. Visiting with a family like the Cohens or going to a hospital will literally change you. It gives me chizuk and an appreciation to H-shem every time I go.
call / email yudi and get involved. No money required. Just a few chocolates for the kids perhaps… and an ear to listen to their story and how they are coping.
Another highlight was seeing my nephew on stage. It was incredible how he was able to sing AND give me the raspberry when I made a face at him. A Talent I’m sure his father stays up nights teaching him.
It was alot of fun seeing the gang from SI. THe concert was and IS a true testament to Willowbrook. How we / they all have Israel in their hearts and mind. I also got a kick out of seeing my friends Jenn and Brad at the concert. 2 of their sons sing, and the third dances like Michael Jackson on speed. Everyone around me wondered how that little kid in the yellow GAP shirt was. I dont think Brad has ever made a split in his life. I know he’s been on the GW bridge in his drawers… but splits … I don;t know. I also will try harder to appeal to my younger readers… chavi and yehuda like when I write about throw up. Chavi, my niece will be visiting Israel for pesach and my nephews, yaacov and Choir boy will be visiting use in august with Aunt RUthie. Looks like my drums will get some more use out of them.
My folks made a gala evening Sat. night to welcome me back to the US … for the 6th time… or 7th… so I got to see little reeva. ALmost picked her up…
“SHE”S SLEEPING.. DONT TOUCH HER…. ”
Good luck yossi, she’s all yours….
Saw moshe and heard about his day camp adventures. Its always more fun when the off season is more exciting than the actual season itself. Its 8 weeks of summer and 10 months of politics and fighting. YOfey!
The funniest thing besides the little league game… .which we’ll get to later…. was the shabbos morning davening and kiddush at Rabbi Rubin’s shul. Sasregan. MOshe Fox, father of my cousin Rebetzin Rona Reich, had yahrzeit for his father so he had a table or two set up in the back of the shul for a tikkun after davening. Ok, thats fine…
They made a second minyan in the side room so he can daven for the amud. I saw this and wondered. what will happen when his minyan finishes 10 minutes before the main minyan does….
well, I shouldn’t have wondered.
HIs 10 or 15 people from his minyan made kiddush, made lechaim, ate the p’tcheh.. (NO idea that it is either)etc. while the main minyan was still in the middle of mussaf. Excuse me…. um…. we’re like…. davening here…..can you put down the glenlivet 15 year for a minute…
What was more startling was that the people near me… dissapeared… I look around and they had their taliesim away and they were eating as well… Its a long davening people but… come on….
SO at the end of mussaf there were maybe 15 people with their talesim on… the rest were at the kiddush table. Typical.
Looking around I noticed that only 1 of my friends from my childhood was there that morning. All the rest…. Chaim weiss, Tzvi weiser, zev beinstock, Dovid Roth, kivi schuck…. no one, except Alex Gold davens there. Draw your own conclusions..
And now the sad / funny part… Watching Fishy leave his son Yitzchok in to pitch and walk home the winning run. Yeah… well… about that….(office space)… I thought the tough part was 2 years ago when fishy took him out in the middle of the inning. This according to fishy was worse.
Theres nothing more to say. At least Kenny’s kid after making an error at first WON the game and made a good plays in the field. When you walk home the winning run… its just silence. Its so Mets.
“SO yitzchok, besides that…. does you hat fit well?”
Kind of like… so besides that Mrs. Kennedy, how did you like the parade?
At least Fishy has turned the corner in a big way.
No more “I own a fish store… so I’m going to coach the marlins.. get it? MARLINS… its a fish.. I think” I guess after 10 years everyone kind of realizes and knows that fishy owns a fish store. I mean just smell him. Actually, thats not 100% accurrate. The first time I met him I thought he worked in a smelly sock store…
He now coaches the Indians.
Maybe he opened a cigar store somewhere and we don’t know about it yet…
Well, Thats about all I can think of at this time.
(the smelly sock joke JUST came to me as I was going over the blog for the second time…. After a second cup of jo….)
J