Even Higher

Shabbos was great. Thank G-d. I ate with neighbors/friends. And I got some very deeply needed rest. My neighbors were gone for two years and reappeared and let me tell you, I missed them. (That phrasing was based on a joke that stayed with me from years ago - to see the source joke, take a look here.)

They were in Israel, in Gruss, for two years. The Mrs. and the budding Rabbi each did teaching related work, in addition to his full time learning. They had four MMY girls sleeping over. It was leibadik. I never know how much to say naming names wise, but one of the guests wanted a shout out in my blog, or so her friend claimed - so here's a shout out to I. W. - and also to the other I. and to the two Rs.

Here's my breathing out the fact that when people were talking bout where they went to HS I said I went to Central (which is a girl's school). I explained that I went to Y.H.S.Q, which is the building where Central is now. Another guest, half of a young couple, said, "Oh, that's where my grandmother went." Sometimes unfiltered remarks prompt unfiltered replies and before I knew it I'd said,"Your grandmother!?!" Sigh. Breathe out. Breathe out. Breathe.

Here's a free associative post from Selichot night two years ago, with a nice (for lack of a better word, although I wish I had a better word) chain of comments. Here's one from three years ago on Selichot night which has a bunch of commenters discussing Yoya. That night, three year's ago I was chaperoning a group of students. I wrote this: "Shabbos Candles for the Shabbaton were assorted scented candles in large glass jars. They burned all through Shabbos and filled the first floor with a delicious smell. No-one made a big deal about them, but I think it was an amazing thing. Kind of like dandelions, so common, so beautiful." You can find the whole post here, along with a comment and my return comment about the candles.

I had meant to post the following earlier in the week and wrote it up, but it didn't publish. I just found it in a tab and am adding it in here. I really wanted to give this student her props more promptly. In one of my classes this week I used the Smartboard and it wasn't cooperating. This class (which was cooperating) knows that I like haiku. One of the students handed me this poem after class. It's about the so called Smartboard:

How does this thing work?
Impossibly confusing
Not really that smart?

The same student told me this, which apparently has been around - but I'd never heard it before. I told it to my ride home and it made him laugh out loud:

Haiku can be fun
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator

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Uri, if you're reading - do you know where I can find on line the Rabbi Mordechai Cohen article about poetry from one of the Torah U'Madda Journals? I was sharing a poem/vort at the Shabbos table and someone mentioned intrigued me with a mention of this article. I asked someone else about it and they said that they remembered one year in Stern that he was ripping the article out of the journals and giving them out to his classes. It seems there were many of the journals sitting around untouched, so he wanted to save money on the photocopying and gave out the article that way. Mordy, if you're reading - let me know.

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I think it's a lost opportunity if we take the Selichot, poems by poets, and mumble through them fast like I don't know what. When in real life, regarding something that mattered, would anyone ever rumble quickly through words? How do we pass that as prayer? Soon it is Selichot time.

May we all be blessed to grant, seek, achieve, receive forgiveness.