So fun it was exhausting 10-22-08

We just finished Simchat Torah/Shmini Etzeret which are probably the most fun holidays in Judaism... actually that's exactly what they are supposed to be.  After all this repenting etc... we celebrate and feel joy... I'm not going to get into the meaning of it... only the facts...

I still have the songs ringing in my ears.  Basically at night and in the morning for the past two days (that's 4 times) we had a holiday service... prayed... and then did Hakafos. Hakafos are about 7 Sentences... so I thought... what's everybody making such a fuss about this probably takes 20 seconds... maybe 5 minutes if you sing it.... o how wrong I was.  We read the first line... and then took two Torahs(that's right... a document so holy if it touches the ground, all witnesses fast for 40 days)... and danced with it singing for at least 20 minutes before we read the next line.  And not jsut normal dancing... kids were thrown in the air (the goal was to touch the ceiling), people were singing on chairs, we were spining in circles holding hands so fast that people were thrown around... it was crazy.   Then before the next line is read we have to bring the stander that the Torah is placed on back in the room.  So every time the person in charge of the service tried to pull it in... he had an army of Yeshiva guys pick him up in the air... walk him back to the dancing and put the stander back outside the room.  I can't explain it even close to what I experienced but it was crazy.

And today Tehila... the cutest baby in the world in case you forgot... came in with her parents and I got to dance with her!  And Yoni and his father and Grandfather were all honored a bunch of times with different mitzvahs during the service which was really nice to see.  

The other amazing thing is called bidding.  Some of the mitzvahs are so big that people will pay money or do other things to get them.  Today we had two guys, Ilya Verzub (who actually bid just to give his aliyah to someone else) and Asaf (who is amazing), who promise to memorize 11 chapters of Mishnayot.  They were valueing one chapter at $100 so if they don't do it they owe 1100 dollars... and memorizing ancient hebrew (knowing its meaning and everything) is not easy especially when you already are studying hard all year.  So they did all this to get the Aliyah(the bracha(blessing) before and after the Torah reading) for the last section and first section of the torah.  There's something about getting these honors that gets you married or something... not sure but it was intense to see the bidding war.

So that was really fun and today I sold my bike!  I didn't really use it any more so I'm pretty happy.   And I also got emails from some wine distributors that I may be able to get a supply for the Yeshiva and for the students to give as presents for their hosts.  They told me they'd sell me wine for a discount!  So cool!

And the shekel is now 3.89 to the dollar which is amazing since it was at 3.2ish earlier!  

Time to study and party more... 

Love

Omri