Mazel tov..
August 15, 2006Mazel tov to Menachem schonfeld. A new gadol in Klal Yisroel. He should be with g-d’s help able to follow in the footsteps of his parents and grandparents - In Torah and in Chessed. Sad to say but we need more gedolim as we have lost many over the past few weeks.
In the past I would have said that Israel should have gone further… Being Israeli now and knowing a reservist…. I’m not as gung ho as I would have been. Its easy to say that Israel should have kept fighting… but… there were 500,000 jews that were living in schools, bomb shelters… as well as thousands of soldiers that were putting their lives on the line.
Will there be peace?
I doubt it. Unless there is a disarming of hizbollah, sad to say, but I think we will be in a worse matzav. They will get better rockets and they will be getting more people that will join their side. I think from hearing news reports and quotes from soliders you can hear both sides. Reservists that just want to go home to their wives and children as well as some being angry that they had to stop in the middle and how they couldn’t finish their jobs.
The main thing will be in Lebanon can in fact stand on its own. I don’t think they are strong enough to disarm Hizbollah. We have to keep in mind that its not the army or the politicans that are pulling the strings. Its H-shem that does and we lose that perspective when we are tuned into CNN or other news stations.
Over the weekend Penina came down to Baltimore and we spent shabbos is GeorgeTown and sunday touring D.C. There is a very nice chevra at the shul, Kesher. Its a modern place and it looks like the shul is very open towards young people. Friday night the place was packed with youngsters from the neighboring colleges I think. An interesting moment was in the rav’s gemora shiur. Not only were women in attendancem but a young woman asked a shtark question on Rashi’s pshat. The torah and the thirst for learning is not only held by yeshiva boys anymore I guess. This was the first time I think that I was in a gemora shiur with women attending. When a woman said kadish at ma’ariv.. I wasn’t as surprised. I think I heard a lady say kadish once in the Lower East side. The most impressive thing was the chazzan, a man, on friday night used the carlebach simcha lartetzecha, My favorite one, for lcha dodi. Georgetown is actually very nice. Cross between Cape Cod and the village. Upscale yuppies and students in a very pretty setting near the river. Very expensive I hear as well.
Sunday we went on a segway tour of D.C. Segways are those scooters that are freestanding and that almost balance by themselves. After watching a short training video and a training session we were zipping down Penn. Avenue up and around the historical buildings. Getting stares from everyone. It was alot of fun. The best way to see the area. I think its too much to walk all arounf the mall and memorials. SO a scooter or segway was perfect. I only partly crashed 2 times. Trying to take pictures while riding… not a good idea as I bumped the curb and almost fell off.
Well, I’m going to try and do some work.
Have a good day y’all,
J
