Last Friday we went to Oma's kever for her Yahrtzeit. we borrowed a car and took Yehuda with us since we had no one to watch him.
we arrived at the parking lot of the cemetery and met Ali, Rechi, and some of the relatives. we then walked together up to the Kever where we all said some tehillim.
it was a little hard for me since Yehuda thought it was a playground and i had to go chasing him around the cemetery, not something that you really want to be doing. so i learned my lesson that it really was not the place for him (he was the only child there) and i cannot bring him there again for many years but i really did want to be there. it was "nice" to be there and it certainly bought Nachas to Oma & Opa having so many of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren there.
Motei Shabbos Shloimy played at the Hilula
(Memory gathering) of the Aish Kodesh with Shlomo Katz. They also had a Cornerstone ceremony for the new Shul they are building. The Aish Kodesh is the Rebbe of Piazeczna, Harav Kalonymous Kalman Shapiro, zt"l, who wrote the inspirational sefer, "Aish Kodesh" during his all too brief tenure as the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto. Shortly before he was murdered by the Nazis HY"D and the Ghetto was liquidated, the Rebbe buried his writings beneath the Ghetto's ruins with the hopeful plea that, after the war, the manuscript be taken to Eretz Yisrael. Rav Weinberger from Aish Kodesh Woodmere was inspired by this sefer and decided to name the shul after it.
A lot of people from Aish Kodesh Woodmere daven in Aish Kodesh RBS. In RBS the Rav is Rav Shapiro the great Nefew of Harav Kalonymus Kalman. He is a REAL Tzadik. The 1st time I saw him I was waiting outside on Simchas Torah and saw some man bringing out Kugel and Barekas for people to eat. Then Shloimy Came out and introduced me to that man who was Rav Shapiro the Rav of the Shul! He will not sit down at Seudat Shlishit until everyone has a seat and food WOW!
On Monday Shloimie went to Yerushalayim to take his road test. he felt that the test went well and got a call from his instructor later that day saying that he passed!!!! so on tues,. he went to Beit Shemesh to get his driver license. he thought it would have taken a lot longer but it wasn't too long and he finally got his license so now we can get our car when it arrives. he then called our Shipper to see what is happening with our car since it should have been here already. the shipper said that it just arrived in Israel!! he asked Shloimie if he got his license yet so Shloimie said "Of course i have my license, i'm waiting for you to call me about the car!!!". anyway, he said that he will let us know next week when we can get it. i hope it won't take too much longer till we get it.
Tues. night i had a bat mitzvah for Sora Baila Akselrud's daughter. the women were invited for dessert and dancing at 9PM. at about 5 pm there was a knock on our front door and it was judy and Aaron Akselrud. they came to say hello and brought us a housewarming gift, a beautiful challah cover. it was so thoughtful of them. they are the nicest people. they stayed for about 15 minutes bec. they were on their way to the Bat- Mitzvah. i didn't have to give them a tour since they've been here MANY times already but they noticed that the house was painted.
the Bat Mitzvah was very nice. the girls all had a good time and i really enjoyed some of those desserts!
This morning (thurs.) we had another Akselrud Simcha. our former tenants, Yudi & Penina made their son's bar mitzvah at the Kotel. they had a big breakfast after davening at a catering hall right outside the Old City. it was a really nice place and the food was good. Shloimie got a lift straight to the hall since he was playing the music. he had all his equipment with him and i went with a few neighbors after everyone's kids left for school so we also went directly to the hall. we felt bad that we missed the davening but we just couldn't leave any earlier. The Akselrud's also knew that most of the women would miss davening. we ate, danced, saw a video of the Bar Mitzvah boy and then we came home. luckily Shira got out of School early so she was able to pick Yehuda up from Gan so i didn't have to rush home....
Speaking of Yehuda's Gan, we finally decided on a gan for him. (for those of you who read the previous blog, you know what i'm talking about). we were debating where to send him and we settled on a Hebrew speaking gan for him. the Morah speaks fluent English so that made me feel a lot better since i know that he will be understood. i also asked Morah Tirtza to please repeat in English to him, whatever she tells the class so that he can understand what's going on.
On a side note, it is very important to understand what people say to you. my friend told me a story that happened to them on chol Hamoed.... Her family was in the car going on a trip and they had their son's friend in the car with them. this friend is Israeli and didn't speak english. so they are on their way and this boy, who was about 8 yrs old ( i think) said in hebrew, "ani tzarich lihaki." so they didn't understand him and just continued on their way and he said it again and again and again. they didn't know what he was saying so they basically ignored him and with that, this little boy threw up all over their car. so they said "Oh, we just learned a new word...lihaki must mean to throw up!!!" and they said that they will never forget that word again!!! my point is that i want Yehuda to understand and to be understood in gan so we chose this gan and we heard wonderful things about it.
when we picked him up the first day the Morah said he was great, he didn't cry at all. there are about 5 or 6 other kids who speak english so she told me that he found the english chevra, not to worry!!!
then on Monday, when he came home i asked him how they speak (since they speak hebrew and he doesn't know hebrew yet) so he said "mommy, they say cha cha cha, la la la cha all day." we were hysterical laughing from him that we just couldn't stop! then yesterday i asked him who did he play with. since i don't know the kids names except for 2 or 3 so he said "i played with chachi, moo moo, fufi, poo-poo, luli..." i guess he hasn't gotten their names down yet.
This morning i was getting him dressed and i was singing some song to him ( i don't remember which one) and he said shut up, which is a favorite word of his. but i very often choose to ignore it when he says it.(is that the correct parenting technique, Yael??) anyway, i continued singing and he said it again so i told him that i don't want to shut up! so he says to me "Mommy, SHEKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" so with that i basically shut my mouth!(maybe tomorrow i'll pick a different song to sing to him).
so for the most part, he likes Gan and is happy to go. this morning he put on his knapsack at 7:30 AM and said "ok mommy, i'm going to my new gan now." i told him he had some time and that he can go back to making more trouble!
Speaking of trouble, the other day yehuda was playing on our mirpeset(porch) with our neighbor, yaakov, from across the street and he saw the hose. so he decided to try it out and he went over to the hose, turned it on FULL force and proceeded to DRENCH Yaakov (who's only 4 years old). we couldn't stop laughing! Shloimie and i were inside watching poor little Yaakov stand there dripping wet from head to toe, literally. the good thing was that Yaakov was laughing with us! so we tried telling yehuda to turn it off but he was so busy spraying the whole neighborhood from the Mirpeset that he didn't even hear us. he was shooting water EVERYWHERE!! we couldn't stop laughing but then i said that i hope Yaakov's Mother, Aliza, won't be upset with me. all of a sudden i see Aliza coming outside her front door and i opened the mirpeset door a crack so we won't get drenched and i told her that i can't open the door and she was hysterical laughing when she saw her son!! it was one of the funniest things ever!!! Finally, Shloimie decided to take charge. he took the umbrella and ran onto the mirpeset trying to catch the terrorist. During all of this Shmuel Sackett walked in to our house with two of his daughters. they were coming for a Manhigut Yehudit meeting with Shloimie, not even me this time. so in walks Shmuel and sees what's going on. he was dressed in a nice,clean white shirt bec. he was on his way to a wedding. i think he almost ran out of the house but luckily shloimie decided to step in. then i explained to Shmuel, why i CAN"T work! i think he understood very well and decided not to even ask me when i want to go back to work.
What a week it was in the Walfish RBS Family.
Tomorrow we are going to our good friends, Yael and Mark Struel for Shabbos. they live in Efrat. i met Yael in Seminary many years ago. she is originally from England and we became very close since then. we stayed in contact for many years then lost touch for a few years. i always knew that she was going to make Aliyah and last summer when we came on vacation with the kids i met a woman from England who lives in RBS if she knows my friend Yael. she said that she lives in Efrat. we happened to be going to Efrat on Monday (this was shabbos) so on the way to efrat to visit other friends, i called my friend that we were going to and i asked them to look up Yael's phone number in the Efrat phone book and i got the number. i then called her and she knew who it was right away and we went to see her. we were hugging in the street at about 11PM like two little kids! so since last summer we kept in touch again and we are going to them for shabbos. they made a Bat Mitzvah about two weeks ago in Efrat and we went to that so we saw them already but we are looking forward to spending some time with them. her husband is very nice and he offered to take us there and back so we took him up on his offer.
then Monday night we have another bar mitavah. this time it's for Dovid and Chavie Thee's son, Netanel. we haven't been to a real israeli style bar mitzvah so it should be interesting!!
Hope all is well at your end of the world.
Now that you have a lovely new President, we are taking reservations for our hotel. don't worry, we won't charge too much and you can stay as long as you want. we really want you all to visit. i don't know if you should all come at the same time but if that's what happens, then just bring a toothbrush and a pillow and we'll squeeze you in.
love you all and miss you all, some more than others but we won't mention names!!
keep in touch and I MEAN IT!!!!!
good shabbos and Lehitraot for now,
Elkie
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment