An Important Request

First of all, thanks to all those who submitted information about the previous posting (Kibi, Fern, and someone who wrote to me directly) all receive 25 Muqata points, and Jack is invited for Waffle breakfast for his contribution in invisible ink.

We're off to Eilat, so I don't know how much I'll be blogging over the next few days.

Ari (and others) will be happy to learn that I've started going on a bi-weekly Shomron tiyul seminar on Fridays -- to places off the beaten path, and I hope to share all of these trips with you (I took LOTS of pictures this past Friday). If any of you living in Israel are interested in tiyulim like these, please drop me an email for more info (we leave around 7 AM, and finish around 11 AM, every other Friday).

And now...please direct your attention to the following important posting by my blog colleague, MOChossid. If this works out, if will be one of the most impressive uses of the JBlogosphere ever. So...drop on over, and please read it. Just to give you a heads-up, here are the first few paragraphs;

A Home of His Own

This is the story of a boy. He’s 12 years old. He was removed from his home when he was three. Since then, he has lived in five or six homes, I’ve lost track. He lived with us for a couple of years. For the past three years, he has lived in institutional residences to treat certain psychiatric and emotional issues.

He is very sweet and loving. He can converse with you about the deepest topics, conversations you wouldn’t expect from most 12 year old boys. He is very smart but he has some learning disabilities. He reads a lot but has trouble making change. He can’t sit still for long periods of time. He has psychiatric and emotional issues that are being treated.

He loves to watch and play sports. He likes to wear sports jerseys. He loves to go to ballgames. When he was six, I took him out to ride his bike. He insisted that I take off the training wheels. Against my better judgment, I did. He started riding by himself the very first time I let go of his bike. (He couldn’t stop but that’s another story).

I never once saw him cry when he got hurt. If he walked into a wall he’d just grimace and keep going. He’s the toughest kid I’ve ever met.

His devotion to Hashem is inspiring. Despite the many trials and disappointments in his short life, he has never taken it out against the Master of the Universe. He keeps kosher and wears his kippah in an environment where, not only is he the only Orthodox kid, he is the only Jewish kid. Sometimes the other kids in the residence get non-kosher goodies, but he passes, without complaint. He benches and says Asher Yatzar. He is fervently Shomer Shabbos and even makes his own havdalah. He learns with volunteers at every opportunity but his Hebrew reading needs work. I don’t know where he gets the strength to maintain his Jewish identity in such an uninviting environment. I am humbled.

Please read the rest over here at MOChossid's blog (that's Modern Orthodox Chossid, for those of you who don't know him)

Have a Chanuka Sameach...you'll be hearing from me soon :)

--Jameel.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael