Post Shavuos

Dear friends,

Shavuos came and went.

I hope not.

I want it to stay inside at least until Rosh Hashanah or Moshiach, whichever comes first. Sometimes a feeling of spiritual aliveness is so real that you can't imagine it fading, but the day-to-day mini-dramas can end up giving you a bad case of spiritual amnesia. The possibilities here in EY to make sure this doesn’t happen are amazing. For me, Shavuos began with eating together with Bnos Avigail. The girls walked into the Old City with me from Har Nof. My walking partner was a friend who has been coming along for years. Chana Loesher is something of a legend here in Har Nof. Wherever there is a loose chessed she manages to make it her own. One example is collecting plastic bottles. She rides around the Hood going from “customer” to “customer”. Some of you may have noticed that I always have my empties stored on shelves in front of my apartment. They are there for her to add to the collection which brings to an older woman (by the way, as I age, I find that phrase funnier and funnier. Older than what?  The State (yes, I fit) dinosaurs (not exactly), but that’s another tangent). The woman brings them in and gets the deposit (30 agurot a bottle). This helps her get through the month, but it does something more. It gives her the feeling of doing something for herself to earn her way. Chana has been doing this for years, among other mitzvos that most of us would never dream of. The reason that she is my yearly walking partner is that in her Former Life as they say in BT land she was an Olympic swimmer, and has a need to keep the shapeless in shape. She is even older than I, but could easily outpace the girls. When we got to Shaar Yaffo, I noticed that the girls were not just into “arriving at the destination”. They were savoring being there and being with each other. The feeling of “being at Mount Sinai with all of the others in one encampment” was tangible.

We were early enough to see the Kotel beginning to fill. After learning we headed out for tefillah. There was no place in the Old City that wasn’t packed. The Kotel was brimming with Jews, the Churva opened the roof gallery and put out tens of chairs for the overflow. Dovid HaMelech’s tomb was filled with passionate prayer for his yahrtzeit. The City Government put out drinks, and snacks, and gave everyone who passed by one message, “You are here, and we welcome you to the holiest city on the day that your heart brought you here to feel close to the Torah and the One who gave it to us.”

I want to keep the moments and bring them with me.

Being in EY does this to you, but you have to be where Hashem takes you.  In some ways finding Him when you are surrounded by Other ennobles you in ways that you may not see now, but will see when the future becomes interpretable.

The school year is ending (not in Neve, which like the British postal service goes on forever), but in Bnos Avigail. As I write this, the girls are in the north, taking it in and taking in the last savory time that they will have with each other before they move on to the Real World.

In case you are here, and want a bit of EY here is the publicity for my daughter Devorah’s latest trip:

"TIME FOR YIDDISHKEIT":  A Davening trip for Women At the Kivrei Tzaddikim in Eretz Yisrael With Rebbetzin Tziporah Gottlieb/Heller 
 
Most of you won’t be able to come. I want to feel your presence there anyway, and will send you a blow-by-blow version next letter.
 
In the meantime, let Shavuos stay with you,
​
Love,
Tziporah