Mazal Tov, Rabinowitz Family!

I really can't believe we were able to attend the bris for the new Rabinowitz grandson.   It was wonderful (and rather surreal) to be in Jerusalem and also be with so many people whom we had last seen in Boston.  Many of the BY girls who are here for seminary came to the bris, our beloved former neighbors the Shulmans (who live in Jerusalem now) were there, and we also serendipitously found ourselves sitting next to the Rabbi's nieces from NY whose family comes each year to Malden for Simchas Torah (the older niece has lived here for six years and the younger is in seminary).

Welcome, Dovid!

I'm not sure if one ever really gets over the feeling of wonder at seeing someone you knew as a little child now in complete grown-up mode, but seeing Shragi, who has learned in Jerusalem for five years already, and now has a wife and son, was pretty special....

Shalom Shachne, Ilana and I took the bus to Jerusalem.  It was an easy bus ride of about 50 minutes and the Egged bus was clean and comfortable with cushy seats, despite which I spent most of the ride being extremely glad that I don't have to do this commute to work every day, as many people around here do! (Cousin Mark T: remember when we were here as teens and all the Egged buses were red?  They are green now and it still seems wrong to me!).

This was the first time since we moved here that I have been back to Jersualem!  (Sorry, Fern, that you guys are still in Burma and couldn't be visited on this auspicious occasion....).  I was really surprised at how city-like J'lem felt.  It was noisy, crowded, dirty....I felt like I had gotten off the bus at the Port Authority in Manhattan!  We weren't near the Old City, though, and that part, although extremely, umm, old, is much quieter and cleaner.  I was glad to get back to our little suburb at the end of the day :)

Mazal tov, Rabinowitz Family!