 
Yom Tov 5769
Our Aliyah Chronicle, Part 94
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By Shmuel Katz
Published on Thursday, October 30, 2008 -
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| Yitzchak Meisels makes a siyum at his bar mitzvah breakfast. |
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With all the yamim tovim and a family simcha in the middle of them, it has been quite hectic here in the Katz household. We had all been looking forward to the beginning of the yom tov season with the arrival of Rosh Hashanah, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.
I am sure that you are as tired of seeing all the Nofei HaShemesh ads and announcements as we are. However, building anything new is always a source of excitement, and beginning a new shul is certainly something to be excited about. With only a few weeks of minyanim under our belts, the new shul had Yamim Nora’im davening for the first time, and it was a joy to be a part of it.
Having lived in Bet Shemesh for two years now, it was also a bit gratifying to be part of something that had more roots in the Five Towns than Teaneck (it seems like everyone has a Teaneck association here, especially on our block). With the rabbi, the Rudoffs, the Paleys, the Eichlers, and the Katzes (along with the West Hempstead Weisses), a big chunk of our core group are former Five Towners—something which is long overdue.
The response to the shul has also been quite overwhelming. We had anticipated that we would see 20 to 30 people each week, slowly gaining momentum as word got out. Unbelievably, we have not had a week with fewer than 60 people—and have gone as high as 100. We even set 110 seats for Rosh Hashanah davening, filling 90 percent of them! The turnouts have been so strong that we are already trying to figure out what we are going to do long term.
Here is reason number 12,432 to move here: Motzaei Rosh Hashanah garbage pickup! On my way home from cleaning up the shul’s room in the school where we daven, I passed a garbage truck picking up the garbage. At 8 p.m.! Obviously, it is understood that there will be a lot of garbage after a two-day chag (garbage is picked up several times a week here) and the garbage collectors get a head start on getting things picked up as soon as yom tov ends.
Yom Kippur was also quite uplifting. In consideration of Yom Kippur, we change our clocks on motzaei Shabbat Shuvah each year here in Israel. With the late start to the chagim in October, this resulted in an extremely early start and finish to the fast. Since the day was short, we only had a 45-minute break, and not a single person felt that anything was shlepped out. Hopefully, as time goes on, we will run more smoothly, but there is no substitute for being at the “first minyan” or the “first Rosh Hashanah,” etc.
With no time to travel after Yom Kippur in order to make it here for Shabbat, my parents joined us for Yom Kippur (staying through the week after Sukkot) in order to be here for a family simcha on Shabbat. Their arrival marked the beginning of family arrivals, and for several weeks Goldie was quite busy with arranging the household, meals, and activities for everyone (a job that she did awesomely—as usual).
On Yom Kippur, I had woken up with a bit of fever, which would eventually turn into a 17-day stomach illness (bacterial). On the Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot my brother Ely and his wife, Ilana, made a bar mitzvah for their son Yishai, and I barely made it. I was so sick that I needed two IV bags that motzaei Shabbat and really was not well the entire Sukkot.
I am quite thankful therefore that we have teenagers. Yes, they are noisy. Yes, they cost lots of money. No, they never listen. But they can build and decorate a sukkah without Abba’s supervision, which is a priceless thing. Although I did help, Chaim came home from yeshiva right after the fast and did most of the work putting things together, and Chaya charged full speed ahead in leading the kids in decorating the sukkah.
Building a sukkah here is a real change for us. As a kid in Chicago, the fanciest thing you could think of having in a sukkah was heat! I remember sitting in the sukkah in a parka, totally freezing my fingers and toes in absolutely horrid conditions. Even in New York, Sukkot was a cool and chilly time of year and jackets and sweaters were the norm, if not heavy coats.
Here in Israel, at least in Bet Shemesh, things are so different. We know of a family that has A/C in their sukkah—and it is needed. This year, I had expected that getting a mid-October start to the chag, we would finally see some normal weather, but that was not to be. We had a fan in our sukkah for the first time (we ate out for lunch the first day of chag and our hosts had at least six fans in their sukkah) and we still shvitzed our heads off in there!
Goldie’s brother David and his family came to join us in Bet Shemesh, staying in an apartment across the street from us. We consider ourselves very fortunate that they try to come for Sukkot each year, since Goldie and our kids would otherwise see very little of Goldie’s family (I get to see more of them when I travel to the U.S. several times each year). My siblings all live here in Israel, and I know that Goldie definitely misses her family, especially her parents.
This is the only time the kids spend together each year, so we try to arrange to go on tiyulim together so that they can all bond as much as possible. This year we only spent two days on formal tiyulim, spending one day touring the Herodian castle outside Efrat and the Gush Etzion winery, and then going on the world’s second largest zipline (“Omega”). The little kids went on a smaller version and climbed a rock wall. On the second day, we went driving ATV’s in the farmland a few miles north of Ranana (and having an awesome time).
Our older kids spent two nights at the Bet Shemesh festival concert. Each year, the city of Bet Shemesh puts on a three-day festival during chol hamoed Sukkot with hikes and tours during the day and two nights of open-air concerts by multiple performers (Bet Shemesh resident Lenny Solomon of Shlock Rock fame has performed the past few years). The kids have a great time and people come from all over Israel to be a part of it.
The other highlight of the week was a special seudat hoda’ah that we hosted in our sukkah for our family (and one other couple) in celebration of the first anniversary of Goldie’s first cancer-free scan. In anticipation of the seudah, Mordechai and I had been learning Mishnayot Sukkah and he made his very first siyum ever, on the mishnayot in the sukkah during the seudah in honor of Goldie.
It was an emotional evening, but it was not only an opportunity for us to thank Hashem for all He did for us in getting Goldie to this point, it was also our chance to thank my parents for dropping everything and moving into our house for two months while Goldie was being treated, as well as thank Goldie’s brother David and his wife, Marcia, for opening their home to us and all their support with the doctors while Goldie underwent treatment.
Shemini Atzeret was a terrific culmination to the chagim. We decided to encourage the dancing by giving out candies or treats only after each hakafah. We were unsure what to expect, but in a shul full of kids, the kids really took center stage. The hakafot were entirely focused on the kids’ participation and it was incredible to see them rise to the occasion. Hakafot took 15 minutes each, and with only one Torah to lein from, davening was a bit stretched. But I think that everyone enjoyed it, and it was a great start.
After yom tov ended, Larry Gordon asked me how many Five Towns pictures I had collected over yom tov. I was very surprised to have to tell him that for the first time I did not see a single family during the vacation. So instead, I will take the opportunity to include a picture of Five Towners that I took a couple of months ago.
In early September, our former neighbors Dovid and Faygie Meisels celebrated the bar mitzvah of their son Yitzchak at the Kotel. Goldie and I were fortunate to attend, and I had a group photo taken of all the former Five Towners in attendance. I didn’t have an opportunity to wish them mazal tov in the paper—but now I have.
With the elections coming up (both the municipal elections in November and the national elections who knows when), I look forward to sharing the electoral process with you over the next several months. We have no idea what to expect, so it should definitely be interesting.
Shmuel Katz is the director of Yeshivat Eretz HaTzvi in the Katamon neighborhood in Jerusalem. Shmuel, his wife Goldie, and their six children made aliyah in July of 2006. Prior to his aliyah, Shmuel was the executive director of the Yeshiva of South Shore in Hewlett. You can contact him at shmukatz@bigfoot.com. ♦
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