Amid a week of Mikvah renovations/remodel, thirty students attending the JLI course on “Kabbalah of Meaning”, Chavie hosting a women’s event at Art on Fire, getting to see the Northern Lights while on our back porch, and adding Mezuzos to three new homes in Bozeman and Big Sky, I got word that my dear friend, Alan Abrahamson, Moishele, passed away. His first email to me in 2011 stated “Living near Missoula, Chabad in Bozeman means nothing to me, and offers me nothing.  Instead, you try to milk people who are trying to make it day to day...”, a few months later he attended a Shabbaton we hosted in Gardiner and wrote “I will not try to find the words to tell you how much this last weekend has meant to me...to my heart…”.

We became good friends and spent hundreds of hours in Torah study and discussion.

In this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, we read about Eliezer, Abraham’s confidant, finding Rebecca, the perfect wife for Isaac. The Midrash tells us that as the daughter of Bethuel and sister of Laban, Rebecca was like a “rose plucked from among the thorns”, because she lived ethically, morally and kindly, though her surroundings were anything but. She didn’t have a good education, she didn’t have foundational support, but she followed her soul, her gut, and chose a life of goodness, despite the challenge of doing so in an unhealthy, G-dless, community.

Alan had a severely traumatic childhood. He experienced unfathomable things and struggled with substance abuse almost his entire life. Yet, he never stopped trying to do better, to be better. He succeeded at NA and AA, he was a great husband to Bonnie, fell back in love with Judaism, and despite arguing with me about Israeli policy even just two weeks ago, he was a rose that grew in beauty despite his thorny upbringing. As an attorney he fought for those wrongfully incarcerated, he helped veterans in Missoula, and he loved spending time at Missoula’s Chabad Jewish Center with Rabbi Chezky and Rochi Vogel. Enjoy heaven my dear friend; we will never forget you, our dear Moshe Ben Yosef HaLevi (If you’d like to sponsor the memorial plaque for him at the Shul, please let me know).

Don’t let the thorns define you!

May G-d guard our brethren in Israel and the world over from harm and send us Mashiach speedily. May G-d protect the armed forces of Israel and the United States wherever they may be!

Recently, Chavie and I took the kids to The Bozeman Bowl for a little bowling. We haven’t bowled in forever and it was fun to get back to my childhood fun times which included hundreds of hours at Gil Hodges Lanes in Mill Basin and Kiamesha Lanes in the Catskills. After two frames, Chana Laya was getting upset about her lack of success, so we asked the front desk manager to put up the bumpers, and all were happy. We laughed and laughed some more, and it was nice to get a break from “work, work” and have some “fun, fun”.

In this week’s Torah portion, Vayera, we read about the birth of Yitzchak, or “Isaac”, the first baby born to two Jewish parents and have his Bris on the 8th day. His name was chosen because Yitzchak means “laughter”, and the verse tells us “Sarah said, “God has brought me happiness; whoever hears will be happy for me and happy with me “. I think about this often, because perhaps it is the Yitzchak mentality that has kept the Jewish people thriving through thick and thin. We know how to laugh and have a good time, even when the reality around us isn’t always perfect. While Jews are experts in anxiety and stress, we are also really good at humor. Who doesn’t enjoy a little dose of Jackie Mason or Jerry Seinfeld?

While many of my fellow Jews in New York are rightfully concerned with the election results in their city, as the mayor-elect has said many inflammatory things about Jews and has questionable alliances, we mustn’t ever let such results effect our inner happiness and our ability to enjoy life with a good laugh. We don’t control outcomes; so, we pray, we work the political machine, and we then go and enjoy ourselves. Yitzchak doesn’t only remind us to laugh a lot, but it also reminds us that we can occasionally laugh at the world who thinks they could destroy or demoralize us, but we laugh because that won’t ever happen, it can’t ever happen. We are eternal and connected to the infinite and that can’t ever be taken away.

Having a rough day; go bowling with bumpers!

May G-d guard our brethren in Israel and the world over from harm and send us Mashiach speedily. May G-d protect the armed forces of Israel and the United States wherever they may be!