Hi

Life is a crazy place. A hectic, emotional, running around on no sleep and being ridiculously strained kind of place. And also one of spiritual fusion. This is important.

I went to daven at the Kotel the day I left Israel. I was in the room off to the side, and there were only about six or seven of us in the room. One was a little, wrinkled old chareidi lady davening and shuckling at the front, by the Wall. All of a sudden, a cell phone rang, and a lady behind me picked it up. Despite the "shsh"s and the "nu"s from the little old lady, this woman continued to carry on her conversation. When she was still talking even after monosyllabic answers weren't enough to satisfy her end of it, another woman finally asked her to finish it outside, which the lady eventually did. When the conversation ended, she came back in to finish praying. AS she got up to leave when she was done, the little old lady called her over and asked her her name.
"Sorah."
"Vishel Ima shelach?" ("And your mother's name?")
"Batya."
"Sorah bat Batya. Shetihieyh lach rak bracha vihatzlacha visimcha visasson vikol tuv." ("You should have nothing but blessings and success and joy and everything good.")
"Amein, todah lach."

I thought it was sweet. Little ladies like that are my heroes.

There's been craziness since I've been in America; not that I'm going to tell you exactly what, but my head's been spinning since I got here. I suppose I'll sort it all out eventually, but meanwhile I'm coming apart a bit at the seams...