a balloontwister’s aliya saga

Well, last night Yoni and I went to a chee done.

Whats that? (you ask)…

I didn’t know either until I got there.

Yoni brought home a letter for parents which I thought was a choir and divrei Torah.

When I got there I found out it was a contest. Yoni’s school gave out a book about mitzvos that pertain to Israel and they had to learn it as a project. Turns out last night was the competition. 4 kids from each grade. Grades 3 through 6. To start off the evening the rabbi who wrote the sefer spoke for a minute. I thought. Wow, this is really cool. Yoni and I learned a few perakim of the sefer over the internet and I knew a few answers. When a question was asked that I knew the answer because I learned it with yoni I was so excited. I said.. “yoni, I know that one.”

He said “Its an easy one, thats why they’re asking it to a 3rd grader.” So I guess my knowledge of kedushas eretz yisroel is on a third grade level.

But these kids really knew their stuff. How many tefochim plants have to be apart for it not to be klayim. When did the kedusha actually begin for Israel? What is the status of people of people NOT living in Eretz Yisroel? (I’ll keep that answer to myself).

I stayed for a while and then I left with yoni and a neighbor and we got sodas. In israel air conditioning costs extra so the auditorium was hot…… and with 400 people… whew…. chamim!

In a few hours is shavuot and it will be similar to a US shavuot. You guys have 2 days and we have 1 day and shabbos. But there is a big difference. Here in RBS we have a huge range of programs and shiurim. There is even a shiur for YOni at 11pm. Throught the area there are many hebrew and english speakers. I just got an email about a chassidic shiur 0n my block. I think I’m going to start off by taking yoni to a shiur and then go to hear a friend of mine who just wrote a sefer. Dalet Amot. Rabbi Ari Enkin who learned in the same yeshiva as me wrote a sefer and I’ve heard him speak several times. This will also be the first year that I’ll be learning with Yoni gemora on shavuot. Its good to get an english speaker with someone who can understand the hebrew and aramaic. Yoni, by the way, got a 100 this week on a gemora test and is doing really well. Due to his good grades I actually bought him a pair of baseball pants for him to wear at his games. There are actually several kids here who have them. Unlike when I played in Staten Island .. I was the only one most of the times… and I received the comments about the.. er….tight nature of the …well… enough about that.

A BIG difference I think will be similar to simchat torah. While it was very nice, it was over too soon. Its hard to fit ALL the festivities into one day. In chutz laretz there was 2 days for the last days of succot. Here is is only one day. So tommorrow it will be sleepwalking through: Ruth, akdomot, Yiskor etc. SO when we take a nap after davening … it will be a few hours left to the chag. As apposed to the chutzniks having a second day to really get into the chag. I’ll let you know how it goes.

We just got a cake an hour ago. My folks ordered a cake for us. My mother every year sends blintzes to Staten Island. This year I think the guys at the post office at them, so a cake was sent instead. What a nice surprise. Just like when we first came our friends from SI sent one. and when Jay Gelbinder sent something for purim (kenny didnt though… and he still feels bad…). If anyone wants to send a cake please feel free. I’ll give you my mother’s number. I think Kenny mentioned he will pay half anytime someone wants to send a cake.

Well, I still havent done my homework about the Scrolls of Fire Sculpture by Nathan Rappaport (or rapaport) if anyone has the time …or interest… feel free to email me some information about it. Apparently from what I read so far, it has depictions of 4,000 years of Jewish history and suffering and the redemption. Not sure about that because it has a engraving a a guy with wings blowing on a sax. Didn’t ever see that in yechezkiel….

Gotta run. Have a great chag and easy on the cheesecake… the same suit has to fit next week.

U.D.