Day Twenty Seven and Twenty Eight

I had a very nice Shabbos. There is a family in Columbia, the Coopers, who sent their two children to Memphis to attend the Jewish high school there. The younger one - the daughter - became sort of a daughter to Melissa and I. Particularly to Melissa, as she became this young lady's "Mommy" away from home. She was at our house all the time, and once day I mentioned I was going to Columbia for a month and a half, and she said, "Columbia? That's where I'm from!"

I have been sitting with their father, Betzalel, at services each weekend, and he told me that when the two kids come back from Memphis, I would have to spend Shabbat with them. Well, that weekend finally arrived. Betzalel is a former Marine, and the military banter - primarily knocking out mutual enemy, the Army - was great fun. He drilled into my head the great, albeit sacreligious motto of the Marine Corps:

WE STOLE THE EAGLE FROM THE AIR FORCE, THE ANCHOR FROM THE NAVY AND THE ROPE FROM THE ARMY.

ON THE SEVENTH DAY WHILE GOD RESTED, WE OVERRAN HIS PERIMETER, STOLE THE GLOBE AND WE'VE BEEN RUNNING THE WHOLE SHOW EVER SINCE.

Marine Insignia

 After Shabbos, I went back to the Fort to prepare my service for the next morning. That's when the story gets good.

For some reason, I could not sleep on Saturday night. I tried everything - TV, reading - finally at 0300 I took half a Unisom and set my alarm clock for 0815, knowing I had to get up, shower, shave, daven, eat, and meet my ride downstairs at 0915 for an 0930 service. In the middle of a dream, something was prompting me to get up, and my eyes opened and looked at the clock... AND IT WAS 0917!!!!!!!!

I jumped out of bed, "Oh, my God"ing, over and over and over. I ran to the sink, dashed water on my face, filled my mouth with mouthwash, threw on my uniform, pulled on my boots (didn't lace them properly), grabbed my backpack, laptop, and the guitar I borrowed from Reb Hesh, made sure I had my room key, grabbed my shaver to shave in the van... and it was dead. I must have unplugged it a while back and there was no charge. I ran down the steps (the whole time, I was throwing up a heartfelt message to God: "I don't know why you did this to me - I'm sure there is a good reason, and maybe one day I will know what it is..."), and THANK GOD my ride was still waiting from me (he had texted me at 0916 saying he was downstairs). We ran to the van, and were driving by 0928 (not bad...).

I got to the chapel at 0935 (could have been MUCH worse... in fact, imagine if Chaplain Soussan had been waiting for me!!!) and everyone was patiently waiting in their seats. I rushed up, apologizing, sweating, and began my service. And the service was awesome. My message - apropos to the morning - was the importance of finding the positive in the world around us.We discussed how the Jews could say, "We have nothing" after they had been fed Manna by God. It is all what you look for in the events of your life. So of course, I tied it into the events of the morning. I didn't tell them why I was late - just that something had come up - but the point is to look for Hashem's role and lesson in everything.

Afterwards, we retired to the Commander's Conference Room across the street (where we go each week after service) and Rabbi Soussan came at that point (I apologized for the unshaven face; he seemed nonplussed) and he announced that the Aleph Institute, a Lubavitch organization that provides services for military personnel (and prisoners... Hmmmm) had sent, in honor of Shavuot, individual cheese cakes (Cholov Yisroel, no less) with little wooden ice cream spoons in each. A good time was had by all!

The soldiers - and chaplains - with their cheesecakes! The arrow on the right is over me; the arrow on the left is over Chaplain Soussan

The highlight of the morning was when I turned around and saw one of the soldiers, who grew up observant, helping another soldier put on Tefillin. The guy putting them on had a HUGE tattoo of a Magen David covering his entire upper arm, and the tefillin lay just under the tattoo - it was an AWESOME scene, and I took a picture. However, Ch Soussan specifically asked that I not put it online... oh, well!

I went home, did some school work, worked out, and dreamed about the fact that I am about to start Week Five of six... I can't wait to come home!