A shocking shulem

Last night I rambled into 770 and immediately spotted Yosef Abramov wearing a new suit. I hadn't expected to see him there, and I walked over and said "Good Shabbos-nice suit." He said, "Mazel Tov-" and I said, "Huh?" He repeated, "Mazel Tov!" and then, "I'm a Chassan!" I of course immediately said my own Mazel Tovs. Yosef's a really good friend of mine, and I'm really happy for him. Turns out he got engaged just before the Shabbos started, and no one knew. This lead to some funny situations that night. Almost everyone who walked over to him said, "Good Shabbos", and he'd respond with "Mazel Tov". Then they'd say, "Thank you," and stop and think for a second. Why was he wishing them Mazel Tov? He would then say, "I'm a chassan!", and they'd say, mechanically, "Mazel Tov." Then it hit them, and they'd scream out ecstatically, "Mazel Tov!" Or something close to that. Anyway, it was really cute.

Tonight by his lchaim I heard a really nice vort that the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe said four years ago when he visited the new YOEC zal. I was there at the time, but since I don't understand yiddish too well, and certainly not poilishe yiddish, I had no idea what he said. Gruntig was good enough to write it all down at the time, and it was Big Fan (the video man) who said it tonight.
We find by the splitting of the reed see that when the going got tough the Jews did a whole lot of praying. And what happened by the war with Amalek? They got all feisty and kicked some Amalek rear-end. Funny thing is, the former was a physical problem (the Jews were in danger of being herded back to Egypt-land), while the latter was primarily a spiritual battle. Seems like they should have switched their reactions!
In fact, of course, they did the right thing. By us Jews, when you have a spiritual problem, you have to go out and fight. When you have a physical problem though? Praying's the way to go.

After the Rebbe finished his drasha (and no, it wasn't in these words) he started off the podium, and then appeared to change his mind and walked back up to say a little more. As one of the bochurim commented, you never saw the Lubavitcher Rebbe do that. After that we all lined up and got (or is it gave?) shulem, and then the Rosh and the Rebbe went to take a look at the Mikve. The whole zal was just starting to pile in after them when they both made a beeline for the exit-turns out the Rosh had forgotten that the Mikve was going through a tough time, and it stank to the heavens.

Meanwhile, in other news, this week's Haveil Havalim is up. I'm doing it in three weeks-should be a whole lot of fun.