Ferfallen

This time can never be duplicated; this moment of me writing right before Shabbos - one of my many just one more things. Time is short so most of my thoughts will be kept between me and G-d, perhaps the only place they should ever see the light of day. The day is fading away and Shabbos is coming along.

A girl told me this week that mine is her favorite class, and not in a kiss up kind of way but in a shy - this is the right, mature thing to go up to someone and say honestly kind of way. Another student said that Public Speaking is the only bearable, break part of a difficult Junior day. There were so many things - much teaching and Torah Guidance. Probably what stand out most from the week since last Shabbos are various remembrances September 11, 2001. And regarding school that was the starkest moment of a rich week.

On Monday we at Frisch heard an exceptional talk about 9/11/2001. What made it so touching, for me, was that the speaker was not a polished professional orator. He was soft spoken and unaccustomed to presenting before an audience of 700 people. And the genuine gentleman who works in the business office captivated our crowd. Quietly, humbly, gratefully - he told his story about being in the second tower at the time of the attack.

I'll call our speaker Yosef. Yosef opened by saying that his best friend since kindergarten had said to him after the first attack on the World Trade Center that Yosef shouldn't work there because it would for sure be hit again. "He was right," Yosef said, (also acknowledging that most of the people in the room were not born in 1993 when the North Tower was bombed). Yosef also apologized for speaking softly - which we all soon got used to - saying that the only group he accustumed to speaking to was his wife and children.

He told his story of surviving the hit of the second tower. He read an email exchange he just recently had with the man who voluntarily went floor to floor telling people to walk down (before their building had been hit). He spoke of Yosef HaTzadik and how what kept him on the right path was the image of his father. He said he has 9/11 as a reminder of the miracle which is his life. And he said everyone has something that can be their beacon of inspiration in their lives.

Shabbos is fast approaching. My foot hurts. I'm tired. I'm grateful - to be a teacher, to be a son, to be brother and brother in law, to be an uncle, to be a friend. I'm grateful to be alive. May Shabbos be great for all of us.

It is all from G-d

Everything is from G-d:

The bottom line