Chabad World Tour

Chabad Athens -- November, 2011

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:27:00 -0600

This visit to Athens was a result of passing through on the way to Israel. Since I was allegedly headed to Israel a year prior at the beginning of 2011, there were a few non-believers who were convinced that I would never make it. I reassured them that I’d be taking baby steps — Madrid, then Athens, then finally Israel — closer and closer.

I showed up to Athens later than expected on Friday after a few days at the International Microcredit Summit outside of Madrid. I stayed at a hotel right near the CH and went out to immediately navigate the small streets with my new hotel map. I had a ton of trouble finding it and was a little scared because it was getting dark and all I had heard about in the news was the financial crisis, so I just assumed something scary would happen.

Of course everything was fine and the Greeks were actually amazingly helpful people. The following day I was walking around and wasn’t sure where to go and some woman literally walked with me for over 10 minutes to make sure I’d arrive properly. Most store clerks don’t even walk with me for 10 seconds to show me the right aisle!

Once I finally showed up, late, to the House, I saw everyone inside at the table through a closed gate. I tried banging and knocking and was getting really worried that no one would hear me. Then a passerby told me to walk around the corner and there I saw the front door :)

At the table was the Rabbi, his wife, their daughter and 2 sons, 1 who was probably about 4. Also an Israeli guy around my age living there, an Israeli guy and girl who were honeymooning there, a Greek husband/wife, and a husband/wife from LA. Conversations were happening in Greek, English, and Hebrew.

Somehow the Rabbi’s daughter knew all 3 languages AND some French! Pretty crazy. I kept hoping they were speaking Greek because if it was Hebrew my lack of understanding after my recent studying would have been sad.

Unfortunately this post is coming pretty late and I don’t remember too many details about the actual meal or things that were discussed other than the 4 year old son going crazy jumping on to me and pushing chairs all around — not what I was expecting, but pretty fun.

The Israeli guy who was there with his wife even invited me to stay at his place in Israel once I arrived as I was getting settled in. That kind of thing is exactly why I feel so comfortable in Israel!

Chabad Las Vegas — July, 2011

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:04:00 -0500

Rabbi Shea Harlig

I was in Las Vegas for a friend’s bachelor party and despite the disparity, dropped by the Chabad House for a short visit. I didn’t even meet the Rabbi but did put on tefillin (I’m supposed to be doing this every day, which isn’t exactly happening, so doing it there is a nice push to keep it up.)

I went on Friday afternoon so everyone was pretty busy and there was lots of preparation going on in the kitchen. The house is really big and looks great, especially from the outside.

Chabad Madison @ UW Madison — May, 2011

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:50:00 -0500

Rabbi Mendel Matusof

I was in Madison for my sister’s college graduation and was able to briefly stop in for Shabbat lunch. The visit was so short that I didn’t even eat anything other than a piece of challah (this cuts out about 50% of my normal blog content!).

The house was very spacious — a front living room area (with a random guy sleeping on the couch mid-day), the main dining room area that has 3 very long tables, and the back kitchen area on the first floor. The dining room had around 40 people, probably about half students.

The Rabbi had 2 kids, the first a baby who he was holding and the second maybe 4 years old who was consistently doing dances in between the U-shaped 3 dining tables. Both very cute!

The Rabbi seemed extremely nice and had me and my family sit right across from him so we could talk for a few minutes. He was very hospitable and kept inviting us to other events and and was really pushing us to eat more.

The Rabbi called on a young boy who was just Bar Mitzvah’d to speak about the weekly portion. It was called Behar and he did a nice job talking about the importance of not lending money with interest in order to show that the ultimate form of giving is when it’s done purely for the good of others. Instead of benefiting by gaining interest, you benefit by being proud of yourself for being selfless.

The last part felt most applicable to me — I’m learning that generosity more often than not results in feeling good about yourself and in many cases can even lead to a special connection that otherwise wouldn’t have existed if a more selfish route (such as charging interest) were taken.

Somehow the young boy who did the d’var Torah was the Rabbi’s brother!! I assumed the Rabbi was in his 30s, but the beards can be deceptive and I believe the Rabbi is the oldest and that was his youngest sibling. That was pretty crazy, yet awesome, to figure out.

In future, if I am at a Chabad for Shabbat, I will be sure to include a brief lesson from the Torah portion of that week.

Chabad Toronto @ U of T — Apr, 2011

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:22:00 -0500

Rabbi Yishaya Rose

I went to the U of T Chabad on what I believed was to be my last Shabbat in Toronto (I had been here since Jan 2011 and was thinking about possibly leaving in mid April, but I ended up coming back). I went with one of my few Toronto friends and was excited to show him his first Chabad experience (though he got a preview when we went to a Chabad-sponsored Matisyahu concert the month before).

When we first entered, everyone was in the kitchen (not the dining room) in order to isolate the challah being eaten since Passover was starting soon.

We did kiddush, washed, grabbed our challah, and then we all moved into the dining room for the meal. Jordan and I sat at the end of the dining room table. There were roughly 12 students, the Rabbi, his wife, their daughter, and an older woman at the table. We sat directly across from the daughter and the older woman, who was taking care of the daughter during the meal.

We started with a tasty (and I don’t normally eat this) squash soup and talked to the older woman a bit about Chicago. She admitted that it’s much better than Toronto. I felt proud to be going back and (semi) sorry for the Canadians I was leaving behind.

I actually haven’t met many Torontonians who try to claim to be superior to Chicago and many actually look at me with lots of confusion when I tell them where I’m from. I agree with them 100% —Toronto has a sterile feel, mediocre/expensive restaurants, a bad waterfront, and lacks much of a vibrancy. It is one of the better cities in North America and it’s very clean, with a great international mixture of people, but it’s a clear downgrade from Chicago. [Toronto rant over.]

Then we moved on to the main course of white rice, BBQ chicken, and green beans. This meal should be named after me — it’s my stereotypical meal that I’ve been eating regularly for the past 10 years (though have recently cut out the rice component except for special occasions). Rebbetzin Rose sure did a good job. This was probably the best Chabad meal I’ve ever had and I let that be known by leaving many many bones on my plate as an indicator.

It wasn’t fancy or unique (=my style), but it was really really well done. Everything had a home cooked feel and the chocolate brownie dessert (another of my trademark items) was also unbelievable.

Despite the intimate environment, there wasn’t too much inter-group socializing. During the main course Rabbi Rose came over to speak with us and gave us lots of details about his background and path to Chabad. One memorable comment was that he was considering going into acting, but felt that that sort of entertainment is ephemeral and is only really appreciated during the show, until everyone gets back into their daily life routine.

He felt that while the temporary escape/happiness that show business brings to people is important, the Rabbi position gives a superior opportunity to touch people’s lives in a more important way. I generally agree with this and have lots of respect for both careers, but a great Rabbi can definitely be a very special connection to have for all sorts of situations and important life events.

Chabad Buffalo Grove -- Dec, 2010

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 02:47:00 -0500

Rabbi Shmuel Katz

Rabbi Katz gave me a special 25th birthday gift of helping me put on tefillin on Dec 1, 2010. We didn’t get to talk too much, but he’s from Tel Aviv and seems pretty awesome. Invited me back and will have to take him up on that soon.

Chabad Cusco -- August, 2010

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 03:09:00 -0500

Rabbi Ofer Kripor

This was a lot of fun because there were >100 Israelis there. The Shabbat dinner was in a large semi-outdoor courtyard area surrounded by the main building, which gave a really cool feel to the place.

The Israelis were necessary because the Rabbi only spoke Hebrew so we needed lots of translation. Our translators became our (Facebook, at least) friends and we got to see the rest of their super long post-army travels around South America.

The meal was not the greatest (they were serving hundreds so I’ll cut some slack), but I really liked meeting the Israeli people near us. When we asked this guy Oren if we could sit at the table w/ him and his girlfriend and friends he enthusiastically told us “of course, you are my brothers,” which felt like a really nice connection, especially in the middle of Peru.

I concluded that Israelis are very awesome. They all go to the army, they do these awesome travel tours, they’re usually funny, usually very blunt, just a great group of people.

They’re also extremely economical and thought I was completely crazy for getting what I felt was a great deal on a (#1 TripAdvisor rated!) hotel @ $60/night. They kept going on about how they could live for 2 days on $60 and how they can get these crazy $3 meals with 5 courses and $10/night rooms if you know where to look. All I could think about was how gross the food must be and how they could live eating that stuff for 2 days, let alone 6 months. Meanwhile I was probably eating the same stuff and paying tourist prices for it. Also my Foreman grill that I use 4 times a day probably hasn’t been cleaned in 2 months, so who’s eating disgusting food now?

I didn’t get to speak to the Rabbi much aside from one conversation. He kept speaking Hebrew and didn’t understand English. We told him we don’t understand Hebrew, which he understood, and then he kept speaking Hebrew. Our translators weren’t handy, so he learned where we are from and that was about all we could do.

Chabad Paris Flandre -- June, 2010

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:57:00 -0500

Rabbi Daniel Gabay

In Paris with my friend Zack, I decide that I must experience a Chabad House. The ideal find would be one catering to students and/or tourists. We showed up at about 7:30 for one that looked to be a tourist spot, but services weren’t going to start until about 10:30. We decided we didn’t want to wait that long and booked it back to our hostel.

Unwilling to give up on the night’s mission, I located the nearest Chabad and prayed for the best. It was quite close to the hostel, but seemed to be in a bit of a seedy area. I passed by some iffy characters who also happened to be very helpful in giving directions.

I walked into the room late and was stared at by about 100 men and boys in black hats. This was a Chabad full of Chabadniks all speaking French. This was far outside of my comfort zone (Chabads that cater to tourists and students are VERY different from this one), but there were a couple English speakers who helped me out and got me situated.

After the service, one of these men asked if I had somewhere to eat dinner and then searched for someone who would have me. Everyone was leaving and with none of his people taking me, the Rabbi himself invited me to his home for dinner.

The Rabbi, his son (about 10 years old), and I took a 10 minute walk to their place where his wife and two girls (18-20?) were waiting with dinner prepared. The Rabbi and son didn’t speak much English but the wife and girls did. They all spoke Hebrew and the son was trying to talk to me in Hebrew, which has made me more motivated to try to learn it.

We had a very solid salmon and corn meal. The Rabbi told a lengthy story (many words getting translated from French to English by his wife) about Moses breaking a stone and water coming out of it, but I can’t remember many details. I really enjoy these Torah stories and lessons, though would be better if I remembered them a few months later.

After dinner the wife brought out some dessert items. One of them was a small carton of chocolate covered almonds. They had previously eaten a few and discovered a problem: none of the chocolate pieces actually had almonds in them. This didn’t stop anyone from eating them of course, but it was a very curious issue.

At one point our conversation turned to my profession and I told them that I play poker. I got some lengthy blank stares — they had never heard of this profession at all. “You play cards…for an INCOME???” The wife translated to the Rabbi and he gave me a look that either meant “wow that’s pretty sweet” or “wow why did I allow you in my home?”.

Just as the event was winding down, the son made a super excited (in French) announcement. He had found an almond inside one of the chocolates. I can still envision the face of pure joy from finding that almond (or maybe from getting to eat a ton of chocolates en route to the finding). That has stayed with me as a pretty special moment because of how such a simple thing made him so happy.

So even though I would’ve never gone to that Chabad House if I had known how it was, I had a really nice time with the Rabbi’s family and will try to recreate some of my own almond-find moments in the future.

Chabad Evanston @ Northwestern -- 2005+

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 03:55:00 -0500

Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein

This was my Chabad “home” while at Northwestern. My interest and appreciation for Judaism mostly started here. Although I initially came mainly for the chicken, rice, and soup, I kept coming back because I really enjoyed the experience (even times when the chicken was heavily sauced).

I’ve spent a lot of time with Rabbi Klein — he led my Birthright Israel trip and is the AEPi faculty advisor and I saw him regularly at Chabad — and am glad that we have become good friends over the years. He’s really good at making sure everyone has a great time and sprinkles in just the right amount of Jewish learning.

He’s also great at answering questions. I’ve asked him a million nitty Jewish law questions and of course needed tips on the best Evanston-area Kosher chicken and pizza (NOT combined!) restaurants.