People (Rina) often criticize others for "bageling"*, or laugh at those recently "bageled", but in Israel, especially in shul, it is nearly impossible not to. Take, for example, this past Shabbat, when someone from every part of my life somehow made an appearance, sort of like a segment of "This is Your Life".
Following the painful experiences of last Friday night at Yakar, Ilana (my sister, who is staying with me for Shabbat) and I decided to find another shul for services. Since following the white-shirted folk was what led me into trouble a week ago, this week we followed a tall, skinny white-haired man in a suit. We figured that suit=old=fast service, and it worked out wonderfully. It also turned out that the man we trailed was Rabbi Saknowitz, Rina's guidance counsellor and the former Rabbi of the downstairs' minyan at Shaarei Shomayim, a shul in Toronto.
Today we attended Yakar, and after shul Ilana spotted a friend she had made during the summer, and we went over to talk to him. We quickly discovered that he (Jordy) was a CHAT graduate a year younger than Rina, and he had lived in our current apartment while the previous residents were in Thailand. After that weirdness, I noticed another participant in the Melton program, and I went over to say hi. She was with her husband, who she introduced, and the conversation went as follows:
"Where do you teach?"
"Oh, it's a private school in Toronto called Or Chaim; you've probably never heard of it."
"Of course I have! I'm from Rochester!"
"Really? Do you know (insert a list of names from my youth in N.C.S.Y.)?"
"Of course, they are all my brother's friends - wait - are you Jonathan Parker, from Buffalo?"
Ilana and I then went with Shai and Layla Mintz to have lunch with the Back's, where we discussed (briefly) our childhoods in Buffalo.
For being so far away from home, I'm awfully close.
*Bageling is playing Jewish Geography
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
We should play a game, like mentioning the name of someone you least expect to see in Israel, and then you tell me how long it took to track that person down.
Like, say, Kip. You get bonus points if you also accidentally set his place on fire. ACCIDENTALLY!
Firstly, why would you inflict something/someone like that on me? I wouldn't wish that meeting on anyone, not even Kip. Secondly, couldn't you think of something more challenging for the bonus points? I mean, I've already done the arson once. Why don't we try something involving "art" and his sister, instead?*
*This is as lewd as it sounds, but not as perverse, I promise.
Hi Jon,
When referring to Shaarei Shomayim in Toronto, please feel free to supply it's url!
I am enjoying your blog!
Post a Comment