a few items and a tzfat story

Date: Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 10:44 PM

Subject: a few items and a tzfat story

hard to believe what can happen in a little more than 1 month.

my grandfather’s yirtzeit, fell out this year the same day that Rav Yosef Shalom Eliashiv passed away. I hope they’re learning together in heaven. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosef_Shalom_Eliashiv

It was also the day of the gallery opening.. and I didn’t hear about Rav Eliashiv’s death until that Friday!

more people are dying in Syria.

People were murdered watching a movie in Colorado.

Iran is the news everyday in Israel. But what’s more important is whether or not "charadim" serve in the army…

The Olympics came and went. People wanted a moment of silence for the 11 murdered athletes. I thought, "maybe add them to the kinnot that we say on Tish Ba Av?"

Mitt Romney picked his VP running mate

An earthquake hit Iran

My highschool had it’s reunion of the class of 1992… 20 years since I graduated from Leto Highschool, Tampa, Fl. I was in Israel. It was on a Shabbot. The same Shabbot I was in Jerusalem at the Amshinav beit knesset. I think there is a reason I can relate to many people from different walks of life.

Tish Ba Av was actually Shabbot, so the rabbis moved to Sunday. No, not the living rabbis. The rabbis from thousands of years ago. Apart of the Torah way is we don’t change things too often, but sometimes we do. Confused? Go ask a Rabbi!

So, on Tish Ba Av, we ate whatever we wanted, wore regular shoes… kinda exactly how it will be in the times of the Messiah according to many authoritative opinions (recorded in the Talmud and other places)

On Sunday we fasted. It was the first Tish Ba Av (on Sunday) without Rav Eliashiv in 102 years. Then, later, there was a siyum HaShas, which runs on a 7.5 yr cycle. First siyum in many cycles without Rav Eliashiv.

One of my brothers (from another mother) and his wife gave birth on the "real" Tish Ba Av (Shabbot), to a boy. The bris, was the next Shabbot, in Jerusalem, at the Beit Knesset Amshinav

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amshinov_(Hasidic_dynasty)

I witnessed first hand his tephillot. I heard his brachot, and he gave one to myself and to my son, Ploni (and to everyone in the room he said "Good shabbas"

Then, a few days later, the new mother, a young woman, around 28 years old, who has 4 other children, felt ill. She went to the Shaari Tzedek Hospital and ended up in ICU with a blood clot in her neck. She was in ICU for 5 days, and is now still in the hospital, but out of ICU. She still can’t feel apart of her face and one of her hands. Intensive occupational and physical therapy are underway. Her baby is being cared for by her sisters and sister-inlaws (she has many, as she has many brothers) the other children are spread out across the various families.

It’s "ben hazmanim" in Israel, which means, EVERYONE (except me it seems) is on vacation, and many of these people are in Tzfat. Because EVERYONE (except me) is on vacation, a wide selection of Israel can be found in the usually sleepy town of Tzfat. Also, people in Europe are on vacation, and some of them are also in Tzfat. Basically, unless you are a day laborer, or other working class/ under achiever, you are on vacation.

Now, to the Tzfat story. I work a door or two down from charnobyl.com/en/yeshiva.html, which draws it’s heritage from the Chernobyl dynasty, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(Hasidic_dynasty)

Around 1pm today, I was outside walking towards the Yeshiva (about 5 steps from where I work), and I saw 3 generations standing outside. The grandparents; their children and their children, 6 people in total. The grandmother stopped me and asked me in Hebrew, "is this really the Chernobyl beit knesset?" I replied in Hebrew, "my hebrew is not so good, do you speak English?" She replied in English, with a thick russian accent, "yes." I replied, that "I am not sure if it is the exact building, or just a replica, but I know that there are chassdim here in Tzfat who draw their minhagim from Chernobyl and it is used everyday." She asked me if she could go inside. I thought, "why not?" "Why, not?, I don’t think anyone is in here, let me check first." So, I opened the door and no one was inside, so I thought, what harm could come from letting this lady and her family go inside the beit knesset.

All of sudden the grandmother started crying like a baby. She was born in Chernobyl. She was sent to Siberia because she was / is Jewish. She is the great great (great?) granddaughter of the founder of the Chernobyl dynasty. On the wall of the Yeshiva is a picture of all the Rebbes from Chernobyl. On that wall is her entire family tree.

Later, around 6pm, a group of 20 year olds came into the gallery where I work. One of them told me he had come on Birth Right, and that he was staying until he had to go back to college in September. He told me, that he was not sure if he wanted to be religious or not, but that the trip to Israel was amazing, and that what he loved the most was Shabbot.

We spoke together for about 25 to 30 minutes. The entire time I was thinking of this woman and her family. I was trying to imagine Siberia.

cue the music…. Elihahu HaNavi… Elihahu HaNavi… Elihahu HaNavi….

Best regards,

Daniel Rosenthal