Yud Tes Kislev in Miami - Rainy December

Rambling post of Yud Tes Kislev and Life

I have been meaning to write this post for days and haven't had any quiet time to get it right.

Maybe there is no getting it "right" and I may not have a chance at quiet time anytime in the near future so here goes.

Follow along. I am just thinking out loud, thoughts crashing around in the corners of my mind and leaking out into the universe via the internet.

Yud Tes Kislev was wonderful! Really, really wonderful. I looked forward to it for a while, it always has such rich memories of being a girl in Crown Heights when I went to Bais Rivkah Seminary and lived there. Those late night winter fahrbregens... wow. I'll never forget that time from all perspectives..one weather. The old Hospital on the big hill between Crown and Montgomery. I used to walk out of the house on Montgomery and see a snow covered hillside, trees peeking through the snow. I stared up at streetlights through all the seasons of the world, both meteorological ones and religoius ones, traditional ones ... listening to the sounds of people singing in their Sukkoths late at night walking back home from someone's house on a quiet, late fall evening. Winter and the ice and cold of transfering on Empire and Flatbush coming back from the Old building, the parking lot by the bustop covered in ice with one puddle of water in the middle and Prospect Park across the street... every season and color on display in Prospect Park... yet I rarely went because my whole world and life was Crown Heights. Okay, a few trips into the city with girls from school cutting class early :) to go out to eat in Manhatten or to go to Far Rockaway for Shabbos. Otherwise... was Crown Heights 24/7 in those days.

I can still walk up and down Montgomery in my head... see Mrs. Friedman standing by the door, Eli Lipskar coming in and out of the driveway, listening late at night to him in rehearsal for his next Chabad Chassidic Boys Choir (or whatever they were called) in the basement next store. Mrs. Goldman's Breakfast cake that I'll probably HAVE to make this Shabbos. Every store as it was can be seen in my mind, traced with magical memories like fingerprints and the lines in my hand. Stationary store on Union... little half empty postcard rack where I used to buy postcards to send home to my baby brothers. My father walking to 770 with me when he came in for Shabbos on rare occaisions. Rabbi Simpson walking down Montgomery towards the house tipping us all off to a "surprise fahrbregen" as he always "knew" when to come in from Boro Park for one.. tipped off so to speak.

I'm just rambling, bear with me ... thoughts needed to be expressed...

Yud Tes Kislev just always reminds me of the hand off from Fall to Winter in Crown Heights. A hand off from Yud Tes Kislev to Yud Shvat.

Fall Coat to Winter Coat.

In those days, the old days...before the Rebbe made such a big deal about Chanukah Festivals .. Yud Tes Kislev almost eclipsed Chanukah. Maybe I used to go home to Miami for Chanukah, vacation... who knows.. I don't remember but I remember things I cannot forget.

This year... a special treat, a year when I seem to be constantly being reminded of my past, going full circle somehow before I suppose I can move on.

Rabbi Gershon Shusterman spoke at Bais Menechem in NMB. He was incredible, excellent, wonderful... just what I needed, just what we all needed. There I was sitting with Fruma in Miami the way we sat years ago in Long Beach together, once again listening to Gershon. Was funny, odd, strange, perfect. He gave over great stories, whimsically so. I can relate later sometime but the point is in the story of the Rebbe from long ago... the story about a horse knowing he is a horse... we have to know ourselves and then when we know ourselves we have the bigger job to do. Will explain maybe someday. Don't have time. Have to go to work.

Old saying is that Hashem sends the medicine before the illness, cure before the disease. I suppose that is true and I knew Gershon was coming for Yud Tes Kislev but truth is in my case this week... Hashem sent the medicine just at the right time. I needed it more last Sunday night than I have ever needed it. And, as much as I love hearing Rabbi Feller speak I passed this year on hearing him speak at The Shul. He was in North Miami Beach last year. This year, I needed to sit there... with Frumma and Malka listening to Gershon speak.. like he did when we lived in Long Beach years ago.

Great Yud Tes Kislev. Sorry my thoughts ramble on so on this rainy December morning but I don't have time for grammar or making sense...this is a blog, so this is my post, here is my blog and remember to always light up the world with miracles... be a lamplighter.

love Bobbi