Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Simcha's Emails
I know you guys get them, but these are for Buba, or anyone else in the family who is interested in what's going on with our dear boy.
From Sim, 9-22-06
It rained lightly this morning, first I've seen of that magical sky water
in the holy land. Everybody's happy when it rains here but technically it
is the sunny season, and rain is sort of a curse. So, I'm thinking one of
two options. Either its an omen for the start of a curseful year, G-d
forbid, or its a fulfillment of that phrase that Safta always says
"Tichleh Shana V'killelotehah, Tachel Shana uVirchoteha," which makes it
sound like it's gonna be a good year. Nothing in Israel is just wind
massing bits of precipitation off the sea into clouds that eventually
dissipate into water, especially when you have a second seder chavrusa
who has a plan to slowly but surely make you into a chasid.
In other news, I'm getting at least one meal from my musar Rabbi's family
(Guy speaks about three words of English, so it's a lot of fun), and
that's exciting. Tonight's we proclaim G-d as King, so that's scary. This
week has been a lot of slichos and a little sleep. Otherwise, nothing too new, except the
year. I'd like to hear more about these turtles though, such as how many
and what names they possess. Oh, and if someone would like to explain
Korta, I'd be much obliged.
Hope everyone pardons my offenses. Otherwise
Ktiva Vechatima Tova,
Sim
9-25-06
Happy Tof Shin Samech Zayin everyone!
Today I'm finding out the hard way why we always wake up before a fast
although i did have my fill of pizza last night so I'm doing all right.
Rosh Hashana was interesting- we had a serious chazzan for most of the
prayers. For Vechol Maminim alone, he had four different tunes on the
first day (an order of 1,2,3,4,2,1) and five on the second (1,2,3,4,5,1).
He also had backup singers chanting during unesaneh tokef. The word Hayom
was, according to my count, recited 28 times for each line in Hayom
Teamtzeinu. Oh, and the Baal Tokea's Tekiah Gedola was 22 seconds long.
(Apparently one year he managed 33). The food was pretty good, ended
up eating all my meals here. They had almost every Siman possible, except
the sheep's head and turtles. The davening wasn't so long, (6.5 hrs the
first day, about seven the second). I'm excited for Yom Kippur. For the
record, my calling resulted in me being the first one to know about Yoni's
foot, though if i had known if you were up at three I could've called
then. Well, I gotta go- ppl want the computer and I had like seventy
emails to write. Have an easy fast,
-Sim
9-26-06
So the Chief Rabbi of Israel paid us a visit today.
Today was KBY's annual Yom Kippur War memorial day so it turned out very
different than usual. The basic idea was that all the learning we did
today was in honor of KBY's fallen in the war. After Mincha we went to the
Beis Hakvaros on the kibbutz to pay our respects. We had a few minutes of
second seder until the speeches started. The first was by our Mashgiach.
In hebrew. The second was by random guy who I think was in the war. In
hebrew. Mid second speech the speaker announced that the Rishon Letzion
(Chief Rabbi/ KBY Alumnus) had arrived. He dresses so cool. Those Sefardim
got seriously awesome garb. So he spoke afterwards. In hebrew.
Unfortunately the constant barage of Hebrew did not allow me to get so
much of the speeches, but just seeing the RL is pretty cool. Not much else
right now. Gotta catch some zees,
-Sim
From Sim, 9-22-06
It rained lightly this morning, first I've seen of that magical sky water
in the holy land. Everybody's happy when it rains here but technically it
is the sunny season, and rain is sort of a curse. So, I'm thinking one of
two options. Either its an omen for the start of a curseful year, G-d
forbid, or its a fulfillment of that phrase that Safta always says
"Tichleh Shana V'killelotehah, Tachel Shana uVirchoteha," which makes it
sound like it's gonna be a good year. Nothing in Israel is just wind
massing bits of precipitation off the sea into clouds that eventually
dissipate into water, especially when you have a second seder chavrusa
who has a plan to slowly but surely make you into a chasid.
In other news, I'm getting at least one meal from my musar Rabbi's family
(Guy speaks about three words of English, so it's a lot of fun), and
that's exciting. Tonight's we proclaim G-d as King, so that's scary. This
week has been a lot of slichos and a little sleep. Otherwise, nothing too new, except the
year. I'd like to hear more about these turtles though, such as how many
and what names they possess. Oh, and if someone would like to explain
Korta, I'd be much obliged.
Hope everyone pardons my offenses. Otherwise
Ktiva Vechatima Tova,
Sim
9-25-06
Happy Tof Shin Samech Zayin everyone!
Today I'm finding out the hard way why we always wake up before a fast
although i did have my fill of pizza last night so I'm doing all right.
Rosh Hashana was interesting- we had a serious chazzan for most of the
prayers. For Vechol Maminim alone, he had four different tunes on the
first day (an order of 1,2,3,4,2,1) and five on the second (1,2,3,4,5,1).
He also had backup singers chanting during unesaneh tokef. The word Hayom
was, according to my count, recited 28 times for each line in Hayom
Teamtzeinu. Oh, and the Baal Tokea's Tekiah Gedola was 22 seconds long.
(Apparently one year he managed 33). The food was pretty good, ended
up eating all my meals here. They had almost every Siman possible, except
the sheep's head and turtles. The davening wasn't so long, (6.5 hrs the
first day, about seven the second). I'm excited for Yom Kippur. For the
record, my calling resulted in me being the first one to know about Yoni's
foot, though if i had known if you were up at three I could've called
then. Well, I gotta go- ppl want the computer and I had like seventy
emails to write. Have an easy fast,
-Sim
9-26-06
So the Chief Rabbi of Israel paid us a visit today.
Today was KBY's annual Yom Kippur War memorial day so it turned out very
different than usual. The basic idea was that all the learning we did
today was in honor of KBY's fallen in the war. After Mincha we went to the
Beis Hakvaros on the kibbutz to pay our respects. We had a few minutes of
second seder until the speeches started. The first was by our Mashgiach.
In hebrew. The second was by random guy who I think was in the war. In
hebrew. Mid second speech the speaker announced that the Rishon Letzion
(Chief Rabbi/ KBY Alumnus) had arrived. He dresses so cool. Those Sefardim
got seriously awesome garb. So he spoke afterwards. In hebrew.
Unfortunately the constant barage of Hebrew did not allow me to get so
much of the speeches, but just seeing the RL is pretty cool. Not much else
right now. Gotta catch some zees,
-Sim
