The Broken Telephone

(Thanks Shumi for preparing this. I wrote it as if I was there, well – that’s how my mother made me feel while telling me over the following episode –)

Ok folks – an active story… The scene starts with a regular meeting between my parents planning an upcoming program for Yud Tes Kislev, about a week or so before that. During that time, my father gets a phonecall from Rabbi Grunblatt asking him if he can come to Farbreng on Sunday night Yud Tes Kislev in Buenos Aires for the Anash community. (Someone brought yaakov shwekey to argentina, so chabad took him for a concert in orded to invite the misnagdim to a little chassidus on yud tes kislev, but you need a farbrengen, so on Sunday the was going to be a farbrengen with Anash, and Monday night the concert.) He replied – not really interested in coming, “I’ll think about it, call me back if there is no one else…” Click. Back to schedule, we’ll have a whole program for many ppl on Sunday night, we’ll invite a few couples, make announcements in Shul, and we’ll probably have one of the families here host the “farbrengen” in their house. Phonecall 1, “we’re not going to be home then”. 2, “we can’t”. 3 “my family is coming for a visit, sorry”, and our plans are driving us straight to the Chabad House. Sunday my father gets a call from Chabad in Buenos aires, asking him if it’s final that he’s coming. “As of now not, I spoke with Rabbi Grunblatt, he’ll call me if he needs me”. Preparartions are on the way, it’s Monday already, erev Yud daled kislev. As noted on a earlier (by Mushkie’s & Shumies blog) the kids made a totally secretive telling-everybody-out-loud-to-keep-a-secret-surprise surprise, as secretive as you can get within one freedman family, and that night they made a presentation which the awarded my parents a grand award of a vacation (for the young and getting younger couple from their five not-so-noisy-besides-for-the-entire-daytime kids). Beautiful. Good night. It’s Tuesday, and we started to get the list of people to invite, and my mother speaks to one of our (mrs.) baal tshuvah’s who lives now in Buenos Aires, who casually comments on the beautiful event that will be next Sunday night, “that’s very nice that your husband will come farbreng here! What? You didn’t know? Don’t tell me. We just got a flyer about it…!” Click. That’s nice to know! “Um.. Moshe, they finalized with you?” “what??” Phone. Dial. “Hello? Tzvi (Rabbi Grunblatt)? Didn’t you say you will call me?” “Yes! It’s funny, but I just noticed that they printed out flyers and it said your name, so I figured – how nice that you finalized directly with the office – why should I even need to convince you…?” “Ok, nu nu, can’t cancel like that… I’ll start looking for a ticket!” “Hatzlocha”. Click. Phone. Airline. “No room on flight Sunday!”. Great. Um… Yes. Great. In Argentina, it’s possible that seats come & go by the minute. It’s Tuesday evening, and 1 seat became available! My mother also got the vacation award no? so we found another ticket for Monday morning. Hashgacha Pratis. No seats on Sunday? Good! Someone still needs to give the Shiur to the students here that night! Back to our program, we’re moving it to Motzoei Shabbos in the chabad house. Phonecalls. Shabbos we announced it in shul, at night, by day, and Motzoei Shabbos, a grand crowd of 8 ppl (excluding us ) show up to the farbrengen. Very nice. Sunday, after having a grand ‘asado’ (bbq – it’s argentina) farbrengen with the family, and after the kids finished their online school farbrengen, my father went to the airport just on time to make the flight, arrive in Buenos aires, taxi to the chabad headquarters – wrong location, bad communication (familiar, no?), taxi to a chabad shul a bunch of blocks away and arrive there like a half an hour before the start of the farbrengen. It was very nice, reports go that he farbrenged anywhere from 45 minutes (according to my father) to an hour and a half. Monday my mother wakes up early to fly to Buenos aires, joining my father in the vacation, and also made it to the airport just to find out that they were delayed, drive back home, and back to the airport on the way to Buenos aires. The concert was a big Kiddush lubavitch, as he was also singing many lubavitcher songs, with Rabbi Grunblatt giving a whole speech about chassidus to these litvaks, and overall a great success. Ok. They’re back home now. Call them. Just make sure no miscommunications… Happy Hannukka!

For those that want to know my plans, I will be flying from Chicago to S. Fe, New Mexico (Rabbi Berel Levertov) for Sunday & Monday, back to Chicago for Monday/Tuesday Miovtzoim, and Tuesday night to Ashville, North Carolina (Rabbi Shaya Susskind) ‘till the end of Chanukah.