On The Job: Hashgacha in a Pesach Hotel

Hello from warm and sunny South Florida!!!

Since last sunday I have been on the job as a mashgiach in a Pesach hotel.
I wanted to brief yall on all the action as it has been happening but unfortunately my laptop died AGAIN and I have limited internet access at the moment.
Tommorow I will be waking up at 4:30 to go open up and supervise the milchigs kitchen until 1. (Traded staying up all night kashering the fleish kitchen to milchigs and a treife kitchen to fleishigs for getting off at 11 and getting up early and working a long but relatively easy uneventful shift.)

Hopefully sometime tommorow I will write about all that has been going on.

Look forward to exciting tales of endless blowtorching and veggie checking!

I hope all of yall's Pesach preperations are going smoothly and as painlessly as possible!

Goodnight!

Fixed: Interviews with Rabbis Volpe and Majeski about Yechi

Interview with Rabbi Volpe

Interview with Rabbi Majeski

From inside of the pit

Looking upward towards the bright shining light.
Scratching at the sides.
Is there a foothold somewhere around here?

I suck at keeping Hachlatas.
So I'm gonna start small and say...

Negel vasser by my bed again (it's amazing how amazingly lazy/careless one can become)
Go through Likkutei Amarim again 1 chapter each day.
and errrrr...
well let's see what has become of this motzei shabbos. ^_^

I slept only 4 hours last night and I have endeavored to stay awake all day so that I can sleep early tonight.
Maybe tommorow I will finish tehillim before chatzos.

Good Shabbos.

The Most Absolutely Crazy Thing That Ever Happened To You

The following is the most absolutely crazy thing that ever happened to me.

(I preface that this happened a couple of years ago and I only just thought about it for the first time in forever. I will try to be as accurate as possible but rest assured that the premise and general account of the story are absolutely one hundred percent true.)

I had eaten the Friday night seuda by a yungerman in Ramat Eshkol.
I don't mind the walk back to Geula because I absolutely love walking in Yerushalayim and even more so on Friday night. As I walk through Kikar Shabbos I see the following occur. There is a poilisher chassidish teen (of about 17 years of age) with his back up against the wall. He looks to be really really out of it. Drunk. Maybe possibly high.
A modern guy (sticking out like a sore thumb in this schuna) walks by and aggressively says Good Shabbos!

(Unfortunately there are certain people who due to some sense of insecurity feel the need to aggressively greet chassidim they don't know so that when the pleasantry isn't returned they feel like "ooooh chareidim dont have any ahava yisroel.")

The bochur says nothing back. He clearly was completely unaware that anything had been said to him at all. The modernish bochur exclaims "You Chareidim have no ahavas yisroel!!!!" and starts to make a scene. The chassidish bochur gets very incensed and it looks like things might escalate. I walk up and say "I'm sorry for my friend's manners, he really isn't feeling well. I'm going to take him home."

So I introduce myself and explain to him that he really ought to go home before he gets himself in trouble. He says "No I'll be fine I'm just out for a walk."
So we chat about stuff. Yeshiva. Sports. Other stuff.

Were walking aimlessly down Malchei Yisrael when coming from the opposite direction is... A rowdy obnoxious aggressive and incredibly shikker crowd of misnagdisher bochurim. I can already sense something really bad is about to happen. They start talking trash and saying really terrible things about chassidim in general.
Then they start mocking Rebbeim including The Rebbe. The chassidisher bochur walks up to their group. Their leader says "Oh does that make you mad?" and repeats something nasty. The chassidisher bochur reaches into his shabbos bekisher and pulls out...
A shiny metal pistol and points it in the big guys face "WHAT THE *&^% DID YOU JUST SAY" One of their guys steps forward. I push him backwards. "Are you guys brain dead??? Get the hell out of here!"

They scatter.
"Hey man I highly suggest you put that gun away. Your lucky no one saw yet. I think you need to go home now."

I walked him home and told him he really needs to think some things through.
"You almost just shot someone on Shabbos in public. Your head isn't on straight man."

B"H No one was hurt.

This was the most absolutely crazy thing that happened to/with me.

Feel free to share yall's experiences.

Shabbos Creativity Syndrome

Only have ideas for worthwhile things on Shabbos YET forget about them completely once Shabbos ends and their performance is possible.

You can head south but you can't hide from the snow

Got up this morning.
Put on short, tzitzis, and a robe.
Looked outside.
Rain with bitty flurries.
Ran to the complex swimming pool.
Took the plunge.
Gasped for air.
Put it on the Besht's tab.
Struggled out.
Redonned the tzitzis robe and towel.
Ran back to my apt.
Feet were numb.
Changed.
Grabbed my umbrella.
On the way to shul the snow started to come down thick.
I lit a cigerette and put in my ear buds.
Nothing will get you through a cold dreary time like fiery upbeat Hakofos niggunim.
It was thicker yet on the way back.
Windy.
Closed up the umbrella and let the snow cake on my face and body.
Laughed at my fortune.
Sang out loud as I walked down the street with the snow blowing around.

Back in the land of dixie and what follows

After lots and lots and lots of hours in the car with my dear old pop's we finally made it home... At 4:00 AM.

My plans for the following indefinite amount of time were to be:

Get a job for after pesach.
Learn to drive.
Get a license.
Get a car.
Make lots of moneys.
Spend it on things I want and doing fun things with friends.

then next year get semicha.

then.... well all those things which come after that.

So I'm sitting here thinking about all this and about how after doing nothing last year, and only learning for half a year this year I'm going to be two years behind schedule when a friend messages me on facebook and asks.

"Hows Motown, did you blow your brains out yet?"

Let me preface.
I used to learn girsa with this friend for a little while in Eretz Yisroel after I left Mir. Well officially we were chavrusas for girsa but I think we spent at least half the time outside talking and smoking or walking around geula.
Anyways over the summer he asked me if I want to be his chavrusa for semicha and I told him "No, I dont think I'm ready. I think I should be in zal for one more year."
He said "where?"
I said "I dunno, maybe Motown"
he said "You're going to be so bored you will want to blow your brains out."
There, preface prefaced!

The conversation continued:

Me: yeah while ago. I just bounced.
Him: Where did you go
Me: back home, where are you?
Him: Place Y
Me: I thought you were learning semicha in Place X
Him: Its a long story...
Me: oh that sucks what are you going to do now?
Him: Go to 770 after pesach and learn semicha... I still need a chavrusa

...

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.