Bsd
Yud Zayin/Chai Elul is my parents' wedding anniversary (27 years!), which is why I spent twenty minutes at Rabbi (Chaim, Mr. Gutnick Chumash) Miller's farbrengen with my phone plastered to my ear, listening to a calm voiced woman interrupt the beauteous Muzac to inform me that, "Your host has not yet joined the conference.".
When you live 3,000 miles away from your parents, you celebrate their anniversary by giving them a phone call. The Welton family has achieved an even higher level of sophistication - we give my parents a celebratory conference call. Whew, baby.
So, four kids, two parents, shouldn't be too hard to get us all on the phone at the same time, right?
Wrong.
Let's just say I'm grateful I have a small family.
On the less sarcastic side, we accomplished our goal. Anniversary call completed, I focused my full attention on the farbrengen.
It was worthy of full attention.
Best farbrengen I've been at since Rabbi Korn, and I LOVE Rabbi Korn's farbrengens.
I knew it was going to be good from the first glimpse I caught as I popped my head through the open doorway, confirming that the farbrengen was indeed where I thought it was. Crammed full of girls, the air in the room was heavy with heat - both literally and metaphysically.
I sat quietly, as I usually do at farbrengens. (Well, not entirely quietly. But any comments were directed at my friend Raizy (shout out to Raizy!), not the room at large).
Rabbi Miller was exactly what I have determined a good farbrenger should be - smart, passionate, funny, but most importantly, he let the girls lead him to what they wanted to talk about without getting lost in the shrillness of their arguments.
We wandered from topic to topic for a bit. A little bit about whether the system is flawed or not, whether mechanchim are given enough respect, whether Lubavitchers are afraid of their emotions (Consensus: Yes.).
A practical, if sometimes self-admittedly grouchy, man, Rabbi Miller decided we should all meditate on five emotional points during davening, and I will present them to you in their abbreviated form and let you all figure out how they'll apply:
1. Gratitude
2. Awe
3. Purpose
4. Joy
5. Hope/Yearning
(Sidenote: Maybe I am starting to get over my seminary hangup...)
So that was last night.
How did I celebrate Chai Elul today?
Well, I said Brachos and as I sped through them at my usual sub-vocal speed, the Big Five streamed through my head.
Then I tried to screw a handle on my dresser, and wished that the men in my life were more available to me.
In the middle of that, one of the men in my life (my older brother, geez) called and asked me to walk with him to Bank of America.
I live on Union and Albany. The bank is on Kingston and Eastern Parkway.
It took 45 minutes.
Damn, black people can dance!
After that, I went to my friend's house (Shout out to D.L.!) to do laundry, and did driveway guard duty for an hour and a half.
What is driveway guard duty?
That is when you sit in your driveway so no one will come and pee in it.
Which leads me to my walk home, late at night and in the dark.
It smells like pee in all the corners of Crown Heights.
Happy Labor Day.
Gut Yom Tov.
(I have to wake up at 6 AM tomorrow. The summer is officially over!)
16 comments:
lol. Sounds like you had an inspiring chai elul!
I ventured out of my house at 6 in the evening. I couldn't see the street!!
I went to a farby, which wasn't a farby really. (C!! nice apt!!)
That was my chai elul.
i complained of the odor too, and was told that im crazy......go figure
aha, so we're seeing your spiritual side. Nice.
This friend had people guarding her driveway the whole day?
Today's the first day of school! Tell your devoted readership how it goes!
you had me at 'it smells like pee'.
I had to read the post, after that.
sounds like a good farbrengen
Hilarious and inspiring! well done :)
Altie-Just P.S: it WAS a farby before you got there... you came when it was over.
And thank, I like it too. Cheerio-you must come one of these days.
You lucky to get farby, I have kids of my own now and they went so crazy from sitting in the house the whole day, they passed the madness to my wife and I had to supervise kids jumping in bad till 10 pm, then instead of going to farbreng, I saiod lechaim with my wife and then sat down to write about story of Labor Day on my blog, but I'm still upset, I want to go to a farbrengen!
Yes! lets hear about how your first day was!
for anyone who was intrigued by the description of the farbrengen, rabbi miller will be giving a shiur/farbrengen every monday 8 30 to 9 30 at my friend's house. email me for the address,
ok, PSA over with.
c - you made a preemptive strike against my complaining! i am just waiting for an invitation :)
chanalia - it stinks! everywhere! thank G-d we had coldish weather today or PEE YEW!!
e - yes, my spiritual side DOES exist. shocking, i know.
tales of my rather regular but good first day will be forthcoming.
Yossi - glad the title caught your interest. (that is what they're supposed to do, right?). it was literally what i was thinking as i walked home. hope the post lived up to the title.
jewpublic - there were farbrengens last night too... i know, real helpful of me to let you know this now.
You were invited to my farby last night...
But you are always invited... just call first, cuz dunno when I'll be there (I have yet to move in..).
Can't wait to show it off!! :)
i almost came to the farby, but i have school now, and i gotta get up with the sun.
the good thing is that not every Chai Elul is on Labor Day, so I woud not have to deal with crazy family that felt strangled in the house very often.
when did this whole parade even start? (i mean years-wise, not hours-wise.)
Lets see: it was holiday since 1896, so the parade tradition came during the good days of 1900's hundred years ago
the WEST INDIAN parade?
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