Moishele Good Shabbos

Motza'ei Shabbos I went with Tzivia and her family to the Carlebach Yartzheit concert at Binyanei Ha'umah. It was very cute, very nice. And what's a Carlebach concert without a story? So Shlomo Katz came out and told a story from R' Shlomo about Moishele Good Shabbos. Basically this Moishele always spoke in a some niggun, and always said Good Shabbos. R' Shlomo met him when R' Shlomo was a little boy in the shtetel. Later, he met a good friend of Moishele in Tel Aviv, sometime later met Moishele's son Lazar, and Shlomo Katz met his great-grandson at a wedding only a few weeks ago. Very cute, right? Well, When R' Shlomo met the friend in Tel Aviv, this friend told him what happened to Moishele. He was on a train with his family on his way out of Europe with fake British passports, when his wife begged him:

Wife: Moishele, please just keep your mouth shut, and don't say anything, please.
Moishele: But how can I leave this holy place without saying Good Shabbos one more time?

He opens the window and at the top of his lungs sings, "Good Shabbos! Good Shabbos!" in that same niggun. Well, someone recognized him from the "Wanted" posters that the Nazis hung up with his picture on it. He pointed Moishele out to the Nazis and with his dying breath as they beat him in front of his family, he said "Good Shabbos."

Now that's all very nice and sweet and Rabbi Akiva-esque and all, but am I the only one to see the problem? He knows he is wanted by the Nazis, he is almost free from them on his way out, and what does he do? He announces himself to the Nazis. Why? Because he just can't hold himself, he has to yell Good Shabbos to Europe, he just has to. What is wrong with him?! He knows he might die and all, but he has to say Good Shabbos?? Does "v'chai bahem" mean nothing to you??

And worse, they don't just kill him, they beat him to death -- in front of his wife and kids. He couldn't just listen to his wife, no, he had to get himself killed. I don't care how much bitachon he had that HaShem would keep him safe, even Avraham took precautions that he wouldn't die.

What is it that would make him want to do this? That he would not be able to hold himself for a short time? What is it? I have to know.

2009 This Year In Baseball Awards

Yup, folks, it's that time of year again. The baseball season is [almost] over, and it's now time to vote for the awards; best starter, closer, hitter, etc...but the category I love to go over is...come on, you remember...the Play Of The Year. This year's nominees are really good. Since there is a Mets player who was nominated, I obviously (and so will you if you know what's good for you) will be voting for him. It's Daniel Murphy, on Jul 8 against the Dodgers. Absolutely Ridiculous Play.

2nd place I think should be Dewayne Wise of the ChiSox. He made an amazing homerun saving catch (as we all know that is my favorite play in baseball). But not just that, it's the circumstance: it preserved Mark Beuhrle's perfect game (that is also up for an award, Best Performace). He wasn't in for the whole game! He came in as a defensive replacement I think in the 9th inning when this play occured (it was the first out, which means he literally came in 5 minutes ago).

Curtis Granderson is nominated once again for a homerun-saving catch he made on May 8 at Cleveland. He won the Play Of The Year award in 2007 also for a homerun-saving catch. If he actually does win (and somehow beats out Murphy) I think he would be the first player to win 2 of the same award in any category. I might be wrong but I don't think so. 3rd place I think is a tie between Curtis and Torii Hunter (who also won the award before, also on a homerun-saving catch and would be in the same situation as Curtis if he won this year). Curtis's catch also saved the game, he caught what would've been a walk-off 2-run homer by Grady Sizemore.

Honorable Mention goes to Gutierrez and Carl Crawford, who, of course, also had homerun-saving catches. Mauer's play was also really good, as the Izturis & Aybar combo. Eric Bruntlett and Joba Chamberlain are the last 2 nominees. Joba's play wasn't that bad either, but since he's a Yankee, and Eric is a Phillie (not only that, he did it against the Mets), they shall not be voted for. Eric's play also wasn't that good I think -- the only reason why it's up there is because he had an unassisted triple play to end a game, first in history to do that. And as all unassisted TP's, he just was in the right place at the right time. Nothing special like jumping over a fence, or a behind-the-back flip, or diving to get the guy out.

One of the best plays I've seen in my entire life was Brian Giles I think in 2002 or 2003, when he was on the Pirates, he made an indescribable homerun-saving catch at Dodgers stadium in LA. I can't find it though. If anyway knows what I'm talking about and knows where it is or something, please let me know.

Well, let the voting start, and good luck to Daniel Murphy! Let's Go Mets!

Mets Plays Of The Year

Well, the Mets' season ended 2 weeks ago and it wasn't a good one. The comforting thought is that even the worst teams in baseball have amazing plays. I'm going through the Mets' plays and I just found one which I thought was ridiculous, on both ends:

Here's another really cool play from Santana & Wright

A diving catch by Tatis

No words to describe Murphy here

That your play of they year, folks, for all of baseball.

I hope this guy got into a car accident after the game. Maybe teach him a lesson messing with D-Wright. But look at the class from Wright, no arguing or punching the guy in the face, which is what he deserved.

Well, next year I guess....Let's go Mets!

God Says "Hakuna Matata!"

I think one thing people are scared about is that there are just too many arabs. Sometimes there's in-killing (fatah-hamas), or we'll stop a suicide attack, or something, but that's only a little bit. One dies here, one there. Not really enough to get rid of them.

HaShem in this weeks parsha though, says not to worry. Dvarim 7:17-20: "Perhaps you will say in your heart, 'These nations are more numerous than I, how will I be able to drive them out?' Do not fear them! You shall remember what HaShem your God did to Paroh and to all of Mitzrayim...So shall HaShem your God do to all these peoples before whom you fear."

HaShem knew we were going to ask this question. So he asuaged(?) our worries early on, right in the Torah.

May Mashiach come soon.

D-Wright's Weird Season

David Wright, to say the least, is having a weird season. He has 64 runs scored, 21 stolen bases, and a .323 average, totally normal numbers for him.

And now here are the weird numbers: 6 homers, 48 RBIs, and 95 strikeouts. 95 Ks through only 4 months of the season. All of last year he only had 118. That means that too keep that pace he can only K 23 times in the next two months. About 40 games, 23 Ks.

Now the 6 homers...I don't know what the deal is. New ball park? Carl Crawford has more homers than him. Ty Wigginton has more.

The RBIs are more easily figureoutable (I love inventing new words). He only has 48 RBIs, yes, but how is he batting with Runners In Scoring Position (RISP)? Is he choking? It's not like him, but it would make sense. Or is he ok? Or is he doing great? Well, his average is...wait for it.... .336, which is great. Which just means that the rest of the team is just not getting on base. In comparison, as I've mentioned before, last year D-Wright had 124 RBIs, with an RISP average of .243. Almost 100 points higher in that stat, which, you would think, would bring a lot more RBIs. Let's just have the rest of the team get on base though. Reyes, the lead-off man, has been out for a while and we don't know when he's coming back. Beltran also, he's hurt and not coming back soon it looks like. That's probably related, two big guys for them gone.

B'kitzur, let's pray that D-Wright has a homer frenzy (maybe even a 5 homer game...?), he keeps his RISP average up, and his teamates get on base for him. And that Mashiach come speedily in our day.

"If We Don't Make Kiddush, The Goyyim Will Make Havdallah"

The above quote was quoted today by someone who was speaking before one of the kinnos at yeshiva (I davening with the Israelis, but went to the Americans for kinnos). It was said by some big rabbi that most of us, if not all of us, have heard of (I kept saying it to myself all day so I wouldn't forget who it was, but alas I forgot).

I've mentioned this before. Why was the Beis HaMikdash destroyed? I was speaking to someone, and they kept asking how could God have let this happen? All these atrocities (truth is, that a lot of people have this question)? And I said, well, it's pretty simple actually, we sinned and HaShem punished us. We sinned a lot. A lot. And it was mostly with avodah zara (although we were also immoral and killed people, apparently). So much so that King Yoshiyahu (grandson of King Menashe) was 16 years old in the 8th year of his reign when he first saw a Torah. Chilkiyahu the Kohein Gadol (Yirmiyahu's father) found a Sefer Torah, showed it to Yoshiyahu and he got pretty much the entire nation do teshuva, it was unbelievable. If he wouldn't have gotten killed he may have been able to get to those people who were still doing avodah zara (some stubborn people hid their idols behind their doors, so that Yoshiyahu's inspectors wouldn't find them) and the nation would've been without avodah zara for the first time since King Shlomo. But anyway...that's how much we sinned. So much so that the king didn't see a sefer Torah until he was 8 years in his reign (16 years old).

We sinned so much that King Menashe put an idol in the Kodesh Hakadashim, the Holy of Holies. So much we sinned that when the navi (prophet) Zechariyah ben Yehoyada was protesting the placing of an idol in the Heichal (room of the Beis HaMikdash connected to the Kodesh Hakadashim, where the mizbei'ach and the menorah are) by King Yo'ash, the people stoned him and killed him (I quoted in the post that I linked to above). On Yom Kippur no less! Not only was he protesting an idol, it was, among other things, Yom Kippur! And inside the Beis HaMikdash, where someone who even had been near a corpse can't go, and they killed him there.

We had sunk so low, and yet people ask (even the Jews alive then asked more or less the same thing) how could this have happened.

The answer lies in Yirmiyahu's response to the people who asked him. "If you would have cried even once while you were in Tziyyon, you would not be here today (on their way to Bavel in captivity)."

Yom Kippur is coming up in less than two months. What better time to start cleansing ourselves for YK than now? Even if we take on one thing, try to fix one thing in ourselves. You shouldn't bite more than you could chew. You see that's one difference between Judaism and Christianity -- by them it's you gotta be perfect or nothing. By us, even one little act could change things. The Rambam says (don't know where, Hilchos Teshuva maybe?) that everyone should act as if the merits of the world are equal to its demerits, and any act you do will tip the scale one way or another. The smallest act can tip the scale one way or another.

We can do it. Slowly but surely.

"Lo alecha hamlacha ligmor." We don't have to finish, we don't have to be perfect, we just have to do as much as we can, starting with one thing.

People ask the same question about the Holocaust, how could this have happened? If there's a God, there's not way he would have let the Holocaust happen, is what atheists say. A lot of survivors decided not to be religious, understandably. They couldn't see God, they felt He had left them.

I was told the answer to this only recently. We have to look at what happened in Germany a few years before that, in the late 1800's. With the Enlightenment, also came the reform movement. What was there motto? Berlin is the new Yerushalayim. Why do they calls shuls "temple"? Because they didn't believe anymore in the Beis HaMikdash being The Temple anymore. They decide to trim some mitzvos. "This doesn't apply anymore." Basically they decided not to folllow the Torah. I hate to say this, but HaShem clearly states in the Torah what would happen if we started to go away from HaShem...

It breaks my heart, but to me at least, it seems that this is correct, that this is the Emes (truth). I mean, it's kind of comforting for me at least, that there was a reason for the Holocaust. Wouldn't it be worse if it happened just because? I think so.

May Mashi'ach come speedily in our day.

Been Awhile...That Time Of Year Again

I know it's been awhile since I wrote, I don't like it. It just seems that I never have time, or that when I do I'm just lazy and wanna watch a movie. Whatever.

Just to update, Tzivia took her psychometry, and I have a driving test on Sunday. If I pass, I get my license. Wow...

Well, it's that time of year again, 9 B'Av. Being that I've been learning in the Old City the entire year, it's kind of like I am reminded of it everyday. That we don't have the Beis HaMikdash. One time I saw a group go up and enter Har HaBayis, and I'm cool, they're going, I wish I could go. Someone then responded, they aren't Jewish, they're stam a tour group. "Uch, I hate them."

Anyone can go up freely it seems. But us, no...We need special groups at special times; you can't daven, take pictures, nothing like that. You can't even bend down. Seriously, the arabs are, as they say in Hebrew, "chayyim b'seret." (Literally that means "living in a movie," but as we all know, that's the problem with slang -- you can't ever translte it literally)

Let's just daven that Maschiach comes very very soon.