The flight that I boarded on my way to the Central East NCSY Spring Regional Convention this past weekend was packed. Apparently for the non-NCSY world, they call the last weekend in May: Memorial Day Weekend. However, for those of us raised in the NCSY world, its simply referred to as: Spring Regional.
...We envision the age of sixty-five as an old man sitting on the porch in Florida, drinking a cool glass of lemonade, playing some golf and enjoying his grandchildren’s company for short spurts of time. Well, the state of Israel just celebrated their sixty-fifth birthday last week , and there is no sign of a receding hairline at all!
At the seder, as my daughter, named after my grandmother, said the mah nishtanah, I reflected about my teenage years when I was sitting at the seder table and looking at my grandparents, survivors of the Holocaust, as they sang and sometimes cried during the seder. I thought of what their view of their great-grandchildren, who are being raised in freedom, might have been; a generation of children that are being raised with a Torah lifestyle, singing and rejoicing about Judaism and their relationship to Hashem. What would my grandparents’ perspective be, in light of all that they lost and suffered through in the Holocaust?
What?! Is it Passover season already? But it’s so early!!...As we get closer and closer to Passover, the holiday of our nation’s redemption from Egypt and the one that brought us to our homeland, I find it very exciting to reflect on the opportunities for the coming season.
No matter how many times you have been there, traveling through Israel is always filled with new experiences. Whether you are walking through a shuk (open air market), hiking a trail in the desert, or touching the stones of theKotel (Western Wall), there always seems to be a new twist in the experience to make it feel like it’s your first time.
This time of year has amazed me for the longest time. The weather turns colder, the days are so very short, and yet everyone is out and about searching to find the best sales for the best gift. We call it the holiday season, and it may well be a season; but if a “holiday” is, as the English say, a vacation, I think we’ve missed the boat!
What a month it has been. A massive Superstorm, a presidential election, and a war in Israel—November 2012 is one for the books!
My home is located on a very highly trafficked corner just a few miles from JFK airport, a half a block away from the train station, and across the street from a bus stop. We are literally surrounded by trains, planes and automobiles, which turns my home into a very popular address a this time of year. When I say, “this time of year,” I am referring to election season. Why, you may ask?
I was walking through the main shopping district in my neighborhood this past Tuesday, erev Yom Kippur, and a woman approached me to ask if I had a minute to answer a few questions for her. She explained that she is a local reporter for a newspaper and was doing a story on a particular store in the area and asked me for a few thoughts about the establishment. I happen to be a regular at that store and I spoke very highly about the place. The service, friendliness and quality of the experiences are all "A-1" in my book!
I was walking through the main shopping district in my neighborhood this past Tuesday, erev Yom Kippur, and a woman approached me to ask if I had a minute to answer a few questions for her. She explained that she is a local reporter for a newspaper and was doing a story on a particular store in the area and asked me for a few thoughts about the establishment...As the conversation was winding down, I gave her my contact information and told her that if she wanted to do a story on a Succah or even just to visit one she should let me know because my wife and I would love to welcome her in. "A Succah, what’s that?" she asked.