a balloontwister’s aliya saga

nothing more fun than sitting in the terminal… with a plane delayed 40 minutes… I left a bar mitzvah for this? Such is life… A busy day that started out at Ammunition hill museum moved to the kotel, KFC at the HArel mall and then to the schneider bar mitzva. While the movie and information about the battle that led to the reunification of Jerusalen was a bit over the kids heads.. it gave me a greater appreciation for how a great zchus it is for us to daven there and how almost 200 soldiers gave their life just for the battle over this important jordanian stronghold.

Also interesting, on a different level was the dress code for tonight’s bar mitzva.

Were people going to wear suits? Most of the crowd does wear suits on shabbos.. were some going to wear just shirts? As is the Israeli custom…

Turned out it was a mixed crowd, with even a few guys with hats. I remarked that THIS is why israeli resent the new olim…. we overdress. People should really show up in sandals. At out table 2 guys had hats, a few had jackets with ties… had blue shirts..

I just couldn’t bring myself to wear a jacket or tie… I had a feeling there would be several israelis.. and if at least one guy was going to wear a shirt w/o a jacket… I didn’t mind being the second. I actiully wore a blue shirt and wore shoes… they were penina’s but.. hey…

Moshe was invited to the BM as the BM’s brother is moshe’s best friend. And the schneiders have 7 kids so inviting another wouldn’t really add to much.

But in all seriousness it was a great BM as the schneiders are a wonderful family and we are really lucky to have them as such close friends. They don’t even make a big deal when Tamar bites their daughter. (which happens..)

Well, I’m going to sign off. I want to save the laptop battery for the airplane. They threw alot of work at me… so Im going to have a wonderful flight by working instead 0f possibly watching a great jennifer lopez movie….If that is even possible.

Have a good week and a chodesh tov

u.d.

VERY hot in Beit Shemesh. Not humid like NY but you FEEL the sun…. Like its right on top on your head. On shabbos we had a bar mitzva at Rav Soloveichik’s Shul which is a 15 minute walk. By the time we made it back we were dripping with sweat. Of course feeling sweat on your back wasn’t the worse thing I felt.

On friday night I picked up Tamar and put her on my shoulders…(you can probably see where this is going..) When I put her down I noticed she was wet…. about a second later.. I felt I WAS WET. Yup, I had to have her changed and I had to change my shirt. Not the best feeling to have a wet back… Don’t mean to get racial…sorry.

Today we’re heading to Jerusalem for a titul, I think ammunition hill museum is where we’re taking the kids.

Tonight we have a wedding which Dovid is going to, as we are going to the Schneider Bar Mitzva is fancy reishit. I only have a few hour window, so the Bar Mitzva of our neighbors in Beit Shemesh has kedimah over a wedding of our cousins in Yad Binyamin.