Windy Day in Miami-Full Moon ... Sholom Dov Ber

So windy. Hasn't been this windy since Hurricane Wilma blew through town and this cold front has indeed blown around quite a few things that were left hanging asunder after the hurricane. I heard a few people lost roof shingles... my neighbors fence blew down; leaves are everywhere.
It's a cold, clear, windy night in Miami.

A big, golden full moon rose tonight over the Ocean, hung low over the City for a long time.

Nice windy day.

I fell down today..not sure the wind didn't do it. I was walking carefully, watching my steps and suddenly I was down on the ground, skinned my left knee like when I was a little Capricornian girl skinning my knees falling on roller skates. Luckily, no one was around.. hate when people fuss. I picked myself off, improvised a bandae from some nearby kleenex that stopped the mild oozing blood the way men who shave stick a tissue over their booboo. And, with the booboo on my knee I went on into Shul (temple) and decided to deal with it later.

It made me think on life... a little anyway. Funny how one person can fall, get back up and keep going and another person can't find a way to get up. They get upset, decide they have to go home, take care of it, nurse thier wound, replay why they fell, what it means... get angry at the place where they fell and decided never to shop at that market again..or sue... or complain or freak out...and others... get up, go on... keep moving. Went home later... washed it off well (no place to do it there.. long, typical story lol) and put stuff on it and took care of it but it did make me think on life. And, truth is... I don't know if it was the wind, my footing or what.. but like my friend Sharon said about when she fell a few years ago and broke her shoulder.. "was like something just pushed her down... suddenly she was on the ground." Not like when I went flying back in May and landed on my tush. The floor in the kitchen was slippery, I even almost tripped and didn't think the whole floor was slippery. This time... I just fell slam down. Happens.

The truth is..sometimes in life you are walking along down a certain path and for no reason you can understand looking back.. "something happens" and you fall, you slip, you slide, you lose your footing, your direction, everything goes topsy turvy and takes months, years to get back on the track you chose. Looking back..you can remember the hows and whys of the time and what was difficult but not how you actually fell... just something happens. A time comes when you are not yourself, someone or something touches your achilles heel, pulls at you... tugs at you... and you find yourself not thinking and doing things you could not believe you could do.

Sometimes as a wise old man eating Lays potato chips told Sharon in Publix..."sometimes there is no why.... "

So... there I was on the ground, picking myself up... trying to pretend it didn't hurt like hell and going on about my life.

It was a beautiful day. And, very windy. Very probably the wind did push me down but I do love the wind. You felt like you could fly today.. like a bird... infact my glasses went flying :)

Last night my brother and his wife were over for dinner with their child. Some of my kids were at a shabbatone (sabbath party) and still are...hope the Panthers won, they went to a hockey game after Shabbos. Tomorrow it's Disneyland. Youth group... you know an excuse to party, hang and do something connected to your temple.. etc...

A wintery reminder to many today on what they left behind up north. I saw a lady today sitting outside in a lawn chair "in the sun" trying read a Nora Roberts novel. I smiled, wished her Good Shabbos and said with a smile, "I'm guessing you are trying to get some sun..you must be visiting from up north." (Mind you everyone from Miami was dressed like they were living in Greenland NOT sunbathing) She laughed, nodded, and complained that SHE was cold.

Miami in the winter.

This is the dark of winter in some places...but we forget in Miami.

Today while eating cholent (a hot sabbath stew cooked overnight in a crock pot) I commented how it is only possible to understand how nice a cholent was in Russia when people needed to come home to a HOT meal on a COLD winter day whereas in Miami people often buy Deli and make salads for Shabbos Lunch instead of the traditional Cholent that I make each week for my kids and all their friends who hang out here. Today..for a few moments you could close your eyes and picture all those Jews of long ago who looked forward in Russia or France to some hot meal on Shabbos after Temple... and didn't opt for a deli sandwich or salad.

On days like this ...you can almost touch the rest of the world... stuck in winter.

A beautiful moon, a beautiful Shabbos day.

Saw an old friend today at Laz's house in the after... Yudi Simon who just got married, he looked cute in his Kapota, cute new wife, starting out on a new life. Nice to see someone who you have watched for years grow, evolve... from who he was to who he is... awesome sometimes. Makes you smile. New new new... so nice sometimes.

So... since its off-season I am going to stay off-topic a little here and go with the flow..with the wind, while I wait for the teens to get back from their NCSY evening.

This week I obsessed several times over an old, great video called The Lamplighter, put out by Chabad years ago which had the most fantastic music on it...sort of a music video from the early days of music videos. It told he story of a Lamplighter... someone who lights lamps but not just in far off Russia on a cold, moonless night but lights people's neshoma.. their soul. They reach out and touch a spark... God I always loved that video. Has a part where Yeshiva students go around and give people Lchaims and wish them well (long story, hard to explain) to the tune of an Israeli Rock Star singing "I believe" and there is one part where they stop at a light and hand an Israeli Traffic Cop a small shot of vodka and he makes a Lchaim back at them. Everyone always cracked up during that part..said "only in Israel" you'd see that. Great scene, wonderful video. Tried to find it online..did.. might order it for myself when I have some extra money. Bright, happy video... very alive and fun. Upbeat.

Then I read something in a book by accident and it explained the meaning of a lamplighter and how the Rebbe, 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe spoke of Lubavitchers being lamplighters.

And, I smiled because in the butterfly of chaos theories... it all connected. My father's favorite Chabad Lubavitch Rabbi was Rabbi Sholom DovBer (5th Lubavitcher rebbe) and in his later years, he would talk about him all the time. Often saying "well we almost have the same name".. Shmuel Ber.. Sholom DovBer...hey it worked for Daddy. Made him happy, he used to smile broadly when explaining it to people..especially those last years before we lost him to Alzheimers and death..

Three times this week I came across things, totally randomly that mentioned Rav Dov Ber.

Today while looking for a book that Sharon left here in Miami that I wanted to read I came across another book. Read a whole long Dvar Torah.. and there it was..at the end and I realized someone, somewhere... in heaven or just around wants me to study more on him...for whatever reason. Well if you believe in the Chaos theory of the universe.

So...here is a tidbit... from the hit parade of long ago..

"As the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer, of blessed memory, said at he dedication of a Yeshiva--"By starting this Yeshiva, I kindle the lights that he, the Baal Shem Tov, and the Rabbeim bequeathed to us..." This he continued, "will cause the overflowing of the wellsprings (spreading of Torah) and consequently the coming of the Moshiah, speedily in our days."

who knew? butterflies beating their wings trying to make sense of it all on a cold, windy night in Miami... bravo for the Lamplighters of the world, we need more of them.

happy january 15... Bobbi

if anyone wants to give charity...this is my cause of the week.... going to give my birthday charity to them...
:)

http://www.lubavitchuf.com/