Sunday On The Bus
Seven hours plus into the bus ride there is a thin line between a sigh and a breath.
How amazing is it that can sit on a bus and type and within seconds you can read it anywhere in the world?!
"How many days would it take to clean every house in the world but mine?" - Beth Thornley (Don't Save Me). I listened to this song, after ignoring it on my Ipod for years. I listened to others by her too; she's good.
The movie choices weren't to my taste. Hoosiers is a good move, and that was the third choice - which I've seen before and we're probably not going to get to, but it's what I call a movie. First up was Iron Man Two, which bored me to a good sleep. Batman Begins was more distracting.
If it was an independent movie made today, or I dare say, a Hollywood movie made in the seventies (one thing the seventies was good at, rather than mediocre about), it might have gone the distance and been really good.
Update - as I write this Hoosiers was just started, though we only have an hour-ish left to the trip.
"I wouldn't dare tell you what to do with your past sir; just know that there are those who care what you do with your future." - Alfred, in Batman Begins (viewed with half an eye and heard with half an ear.
"It's not who I am underneath, but the actions I take that define me" - Bruce Wayne's girl friend to him (saying you, instead of I) and later Batman to her, when she asks him who he is.
What do you think of these quotes?
As I write this Hoosiers is grabbing my attention. It's a better movie than the others we watched. John Q had a few good moments, but this is a good whole film, too bad we'll have to turn it off as it builds to the denouement (I love using that word) (builds).
I'm thinking back about this trip. My camera seems broken, maybe these things die after six years (Canon Powershot). So my memories live inside me and on the page, but not in pictures.
Rabbi David Goldfischer, Director of Student Activities, spoke about going through life saying about himself that he's "not a math student." Rabbi Maish Taragin heard him say that once and said that one shouldn't box oneself in like that. David tied it in with the medrashic story about how Nachshon was the first Jew who jumped into the water. His take on this was that Nachshon, unlike the other Jews, was willing to break the habit of saying "I'm not a freedom person." This reminded me of the saying of Chazal, ""Al tehi rasha bifnei atzmecha." My favorite take on this, is that one shouldn't limit oneself, saying "I'm just a Yom Kippur Jew," or "I'm not a learner."
A boy spoke and said in two minutes what some rabbis would have gone on and on about. David Warner nailed the idea that for slaves it made sense to be granted control of their time. This is why the mitzvah of setting a new month was the first mitzvah given to the new nation of former slaves.
My colleague, Head of Admissions, Rabbi Jon Schachter adapted a shiur of Vaeira and Bo (the makkot) by Rabbi Yitzchak Twerski (formely my colleague, teacher and Head of Tanach Depatment in Frisch for 14 years). Rabbi Twerski, based on the Tzror HaMor, and other says that the plagues in Egypt were an undoing of the creation of the world. He maps out the reverse parallels. The point is that the world needed another new start. Rather than destroy everyone and start all over again, as He's done in the past, G-d decided to do something else. He destroyed the country that was considered the pinnacle of civilization, but in truth lacked a moral center. And he established the Jews as a new nation and - hopefully - as a conscience for the world.
Need to close for now. We'll be getting to school soon, please G-d.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 7:43 PM
5 Comments:
Ca va? In other words, nu, how are you?
I presume you're home, happy to be in your own bed, rather than chaperoning a bunch of teens who might cavort when given the freedom to do so.
Why is Quebec City the choice spot for a school trip, as opposed to Montreal, for instance? I'm not knowledgeable at all about the Orthodox Jewish community in QC, but it runs deep and strong in Montreal.
Also, I was sorry to read in one of your previous posts about the untimely passing of the former Frisch student. May his family be spared further sorrow.
Merci.
The thinking - I think - of those who run and thought up this trip is to do unusual activities like visiting an ice hotel, doing dog sledding and going to a big snow tubing place. The davening and Shabbos are done in the hotel as our own community (of about 150 people) and the idea is to give the kids a good time and build up a sense of their own class/school community.
When I tell people we went to Quebec, many ask if I mean Montreal, so I started specifying to avoid the - understandable - confusion.
My camera broke this yr. but in March, when we went last year I posted a lot of pictures, here's one example: http://rabbifleischmann.blogspot.com/2010/03/im-back-from-quebec-city.html.
I like Hoosiers too. It's a movie of parts.
I haven't seen it properly in a long time (yesterday only the start and end were shown). I remember liking it when I saw it years ago. What do you mean by parts?
"Of parts" is an expression roughly similar to the Hebrew "Ish haEshkolos." You'd usually use it about a person who has many aspects and facets to his personality. What I meant was that the movie has a lot of aspects: it's a romance, a coming of age story, a story of redemption (both of the coach and the drunkard), a story of a team triumphing, a story of David & Goliath etc. I also was making a pun; parts as in the actor's roles.
Post a Comment
<< Home