Holy Chag

This fine day, or two, before the holy chag of shavuot, I was wondering if people are having a good learning session can learn with the thought in mind that my brother have a safe surgery next week and that all should be well. His name is Benzion Yehuda ben Chana Rachel.
May you all have a wonderful chag.
Thank You.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY X 2

YOM HOLEDET SAMEACH TO YAEL AND SIM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SIM
YOM HOLEDET TO YAEL AND SIM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SIM

yaels heb bday is today english next week

Happy Yom Jerusalem-UPDATE

For all of you out there wondering why you havent seen us on Kotel Cam, Shany had to go to a non-zioni friends wedding, I got out of it cuz it was seperate. I have not made it to the Wall yet, but look around vatikin time and I may be there...or maybe not...

UPDATE: If you were watching from 10PM onwards your time, you could have seen me. I was the guy with the....uhh....blue and white shirt.....tallit, and um, tefillin. One of the cool parts about davening vatikin at the Kotel is that, as always when at the Kotel, you cant hear the chazzan cuz everyone is so loud from every other minyan. But then, as the clock strikes sunrise, a total hush comes over the crowd, except for that one minyan that is like 20 seconds behind. After they catch up, all you hear is the birds chirping. Until about twenty seonds later when the first minyan starts chazarat hashatz. But those twenty seconds of quiet are the most peaceful ever...

Jlem Shabbat

The dog apartment came in to great use this past shabbat, as it allowed Sim'n'Golda to come down from their mountain and join us in the holy(er) city. Justin & Michal (J's sweet awesome GF) and Bobby (whose here from Birthright) came in also for Shabbat, and David & Shany slept in the 'hood. Even though i don't have a 3 floor, huge house, with room for adult coversation to go on without children having to play in the room.... we still had a great time. {i hope...} Dog didn't eat any of the kids, Sim even let them walk him. {I wouldn't 'ave...what if he decides to eat them!} the kids got to almost see the horse that lives in the neighborhood, eat a lot of marshmellows, have tons of lollipops, and hang out in Jlem. Sim, David, Justin & Bobby went to the kotel for fri night davvening {quite a cool experiance}, and Bobby got to keep his first shabbat ever in Jlem...what a great city! if only all Zackses were Israel Zackses.... well Arr & Vee... we'll have to try again when you guys are around...

dinner

we had our shul dinner last night, and it was very nice, mom in law and bubbie and saba showed up for our team , and we grreatly appreciated their support. thanks to all for the very nice ad in the ad book. i gave a short speech of my thank yous and some people laughed, devorah said they weren't laughing at me, but i was pretty nervous so who knows. we got a very nice kiddush cup as a gift with an inscription on it, and we had a really nice time. this is my last week in clinic and then woohooo! no more clinic.

Hey Brothers and Sisters!

Simmy and the kids are all ganging up on me, they have decided that sivivon is a great name for a chanuka baby. Simmy likes Drai as a nickname. But it is not happening I tell you. If I let them pick out the names we would have ended up with one named Nesher. But Thanks to the grace of G-d and mothers intuition I think we can come up with some better names.
Love you all!! =)

Jonah

For those who don't hang out with Jonah all that often here is what he's up to.

He knows most of the ABC song - He misses a few letters here and there, but its pretty cute.
He can count to 7 sometimes he reaches 8, but he'll pronounce it "Eiden" his buddy from next store

Ever since we went to the Piston game and introduced him to Thunderstix, whenever I put a basketball game on TV he'll go find teh Stix and clap them together.




He prefers baseball over basketball, possibly because he's been to more baseball games. This was evident last night as we relaxed before bed and saw the Pistons game, and during commercials we would flip to the Tigers. Jonah wasn't happy when I switched back. He would yell "baseball'.

wrong blog.

Sorry guys. I posted the last one on the wrong blog.

1st patient of the day

so i get to work at 7:30 am and the patient decides to have a seizure in my chair while im doing tonometry (taking eye pressure)
what a fun start to my day

There was an article in yesterdays Detroit Free Press about advertising on school buses. They interviewed me, but sadly, I wasn't quoted. If you want to read this fabulous article
click here.

house update

we had some inspectors over the house yesterday and they said it was kept up very nicely, there ere very fewe things that need to be done some caulking, change some outlet covers, things like that. so i am going to call george today when i get home and tell its a go and then we have to figure out the whole who to use for a mortgage guy and then we pick a closing date? i think. the people want 30 days afetr closing to leave which is fine with us if closing is soon, and then they pay us rent. so i can add landlord to my resume. they better not ruin anything.
in other news shira is over the strep and the virus and now shw just has a bad cough, chanalan has a virus and no strep and yael has a realy bad cough. devorah and I are doing well. although devorah is tired and so am i.
a hose down the block burned down yesterday, so that was fun to watch,(not the fire but the firemen with the water spraying.) but otherwise its been pretty quiet and i told the kids how sad it was that housse got burned because the people in it lost everything they had. so they were sad and wanted to know where the people were gonna sleep last night. we dont really know the neighbor people that lived there but they did have a fuzzy dog. looked just like the lady who walked it. its amazing how people and their dogs look so much alike

Jews, What Do I Want To See Jews For!

Don't ask, but I found one of the two tapes that help define our family-Miracle of the Maccabees. You can hear the whole thing online at this site www.chabad.org/multimedia/media.asp?AID=219028

Please may I have some........

Jonah, for the most part, goes to bed pretty easily these days. At least much easier than the fight that it used to be. He gets tired, he says night night to Mommy/Daddy, the Zebra in his window, sometimes the moon, and whatever else he deems worthy of that evening. Then I usually read him a couple stories and Shu says Shema and sings Hamalach (or as Jonah calls it - and now requests every time he goes to bed, even for a nap "Hamachach"). Sometimes there is a little crying, sometimes not. But infinitely easier than the battles we used to fight. He does have a rough night every once in awhile but we can deal with that.
Tonight, as I was putting him to bed, he asked me for a drink of water.
Now, I know all about the drink of water trick. He has to be WAAAAAY too young to think of that to use as a stalling technique, right? Is it possible he just happened to be thirsty?
Or is my baby growing up (like it or not)?

our bid was accepted for this house. an inspector will be therre on Monday Imy'h and then i dont really know what happens next
http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=5&locallnk=yes&frm=byzip&mnbed=4&mnbath=0&mnprice=250000&mxprice=275000&js=off&pgnum=1&fid=so&stype=&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=48075&poe=realtor&zp=48075&sbint=&vtsort=&sorttype=&typ=1&typ=2&typ=4&x=107&y=7&sid=0692734FF226C&snumxlid=1053944183&lnksrc=00002

Torah From Zion

In honor of the upcoming chag, here is a dvar Torah from R' Mann, a Dati Leumi Rabbi.

This year, the 5th of Iyar is being looked at as a turning point. Many are asking if we should celebrate Yom Ha'Atzmaut this year, after the destruction of Gush Katif, and the plans of the government to destroy more of our country. Is a country that destroys shuls something we should celebrate?
There are many possible answers, here is one point I would like to focus on. Yom Ha'Atzmaut is a chag that we celebrate the rebirth of our country for the third time. What is the implications of the concept of a "country" by Jews? By any other nation, a country is a means to accomplish goals. If our country doesnt advance our goals, or works against them, then there is no reason to celebrate. This is a more "Charaidic" view. So why have we been celebrating all these years? Did we just not see the light as the charaidim have? Did we think that secular zionism is the realization of our two thousand year old dream? If so, maybe we should admit we've been wrong for celebrating.

The Ramban finds a different way of viewing our country. He says that the fact that there is a country is a mitzvah in itself. The mitzva of settling the land is from the mitzva "Do not leave the land in the hands of other nations or desolate." After two thousand years we have accomplished what our father's couldnt, even those that came here individually. The Maharal describes redemption like this: When the majority of Jews are centered in Eretz Yisroel, and ruling themselves, this is the geulah. When Jews are scattered throughout the nations, this is galut. When Jews are living as individuals, that is galut. When Jews are living as a nation, this is redemption. A living nation means living in our land, ruling ourselves, meaning, to a living nation there needs to be a country.
On the 5th of Iyar we merited to stand together as a nation. R' Tzvi Yehuda Kook used to point out that first "He raised us from amongst the nations", and then "Gave us the Torah". Our country's purpose isnt to be a tool that we can use to do mitzvot. The country is the substance of our lives as a group. The fact that our country has been reborn and given life is the reason to celebrate.
This doesnt mean we don't care what has been done this year. Of course we care, and it hurts. But that has nothing to do with the existence of our country. The Rambam says we celebrate Chanuka because of the miracle of oil, and also because "Israel was saved from their hands, and the kingdom of Israel was returned to us for more than two hundred years." This kingship, for the most part, was much worse than anything we have today, yet that doesnt stop the Rambam from saying we should be joyous over it.
Until today, the joy of Yom Haatzmaut was easy. It was patriotism like in any country. But it's much harder to be a patriot when you're being kicked down by your own country. That makes this the perfect time to truly understand what we are celebrating.
May we all have a retrospective Yom Hazikaron, and a joyous Yom HaAtzmaut.