Far From the Home I Love Part 1
My last post was a while ago but keeping with tradition, I did not post while I was out of Israel. Speaking of tradition, while in NYC, I got to see Fiddler on the Roof, in Yiddish, with my mom. I will get back to that later.
Our trip did not start off well. We were supposed to go to a Bat Mitzvah in Chile ( with a 10 hour stopover in NYC on the way) but the flight down got messed up, so we ended up not going. Instead we stayed at my daughters , boyfriends , parent's house in West Hampton. If that sounds strange to you, it did to me, at first, as well. They have been dating since the middle of high school, and we have met the parents before but this was a bit more than that.
A whole weekend.
As my son pointed out we only met his in-laws 3 times before his wedding and these guys aren't even engaged.
Long/short we had a very nice time except ( always a but with me) for the shul. I went to the one that was not on the beach and it was just too show biz. This is not an exaggeration. A famous Broadway star plugged her new show at the end of services ( I s**t you not) . Coincidentally that weekend one of my heroes , Rabbi David Stav, ( one of the only people, keeping Israel from being taken over by Hardim) was speaking. I told him the one good thing I got out of the service was that it reaffirmed my decision to make aliyah. He said it was the first time either of his sons, whom he brought with him, had ever been the states and he had to explain that this shul was not like others. I am not sure where else he took them but hope he was right.
It was really great to see family, friends and especially my kids. My daughter got me to go hiking in Canada ( can you believe it) and I still have a souvenir from that one. My big toe looks like it is going to fall off but it was worth it just to spend the time with her.
At this point in time we do not have a place of our own to stay when we come to the USA, so we had to move eleven times during the course of the trip. That was very difficult but we did get to do fun things. One was that we found an Airbnb in Deal NJ that we took for a week. Everyone from there said it was not possible but it was and we did.
We have many friends there and it was great to see them. Our son and his now expecting wife got to join us for a few days which was nice. Although we are not Syrian, I have always felt at home whenever I am among the community. We usually go for a weekend every summer . I went to a shul there every morning and most people were very friendly. What I found interesting was that for the 5 days I went there the rabbi did not once ask me my name, where I was from, etc.. Even after I gave him a check.
Strange.
Another interesting one in that shul was when a haredi guy came asking for money for his kollel in Israel. I asked him ( in my not so excellent hebrew) if the boys who learn there go to the army.
He said yes. I asked how many of them.
He said a few. I asked is it 10 , 20 , or more?
He said a few.
Then I asked if his kids go to the army.
He said yes.
There was no way this guys kids went to the army.
There was a time I would just believe a guy like that, give him a few bucks and assume if he lied it was on him, but this was so blatant I could not give him a thing. After breakfast, ( they have a huge breakfast every morning yet they are all skinny, why?????) he came up to me and said a good Arab is a d**d Arab. I think he thought that would make me happy. I am not sure why.
It made me sick.
The flip side of this is that I heard of four separate families making aliyah from the Syrian community, that week, which is something new. One was a son of a friend who was not happy about, which I can understand. The hardest part of this, is the people you are not able to be with. I hope that he comes to understand that it the long run it was a good thing.
Our last Shabbat was spent at good friends in Atlantic Beach. It was the weekend of the first silichot and I got to go to the shul of Rabbi Moshe Weinburger for silichot. He is in Cederhusrt and has a very big following. I was excited to hear him speak because I am in the middle of a sefer that he provided the commentary for. It is Orot Ha Teshuva by Rav Kook. I can do a whole post on it alone, but just let me say it is great.
There was a crowd of at least 300 people. Members of his shul were downstairs and guests upstairs. I went to the balcony.
Now the next part is a bit depressing.
So the Rabbi gives a very good speech on appreciating your wife, which is wasted on me because no one appreciates their wife more than I do. It lasted an hour and then silichot, which was another hour.
I was standing the entire time.
I was very clearly one of the older people in the balcony. Not one of the younger guys, with black kippot, nice white shirts, swaying back and forth as the rabbi spoke, thought to ask me if I would be interested in sitting down.
Also, I actually felt old enough, Mr. Grumps, that I expected someone to offer me their seat.
OY
I mentioned this to a few people ( the first part) and they told me that these were outsiders and that members of this shul would never do that. I said that may be true but perhaps a short announcement could be made reminding these whippersnappers what they should be doing.
There is a Law in the Torah ( not a custom) that you are supposed to stand when an old person enters the room ( I am not talking about myself) . I actually saw this done in Deal when one of the older gentleman was called to the Torah. I think this is something that should be done again, if only to teach younger people the proper way to behave.
What is the point of studying Jewish law all day if you don't learn basic respect.
That takes us to the lack of respect and Tevye. Unfortunately this post is too long . Stay tuned