For LO, and there was-whatever it was, that's what was

I'm happy to say that I'm working hard on a couple of projects right now, and I really don't have time to post anything significant here on good 'ol TRS. So how about some Judaism, originally presented by Rabbi Chayim Friedman on Friday, May 16, 2008, entitled "Birds of a feather".

Our gallant leader, fresh off conquering the summit of indifference posed by his charges, Farbrenged last night about a variety of topics. One of them was Shiluach Haken, the biblical command to send a mother bird away from her nest. This Mitzva is a big Segulah, a gigantic merit, for having kids and meriting long life, which would seem to be mutually exclusive, but there you go. The Zohar says that when this Mitzva is performed, and the mother is sent away from her chicks, she goes up to heaven and starts crying to G-d that her children have been taken from her. The entire heavenly court comes to her aid, and they begin to plead to G-d, asking why this terrible thing had to happen. G-d responds, "This mother's children were taken from her ten minutes ago, and all the celestial beings have come to protest. My children were taken from me 2000 years ago, and no one says a thing." The Zohar continues on to say that the Mitzva is most effective on Shabbos and Yom Tov, when you can't do it anyway, so what that's about I'm not quite sure.
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Happy? Of course you are. Everyone reading TRS is always happy. In order to continue that, here's a little bit of Shlichus, Yossi style, originally published on Friday the seventh of December, 2007, as "A couple of parades-The Rifyon Special".

I attended a couple of parades in the last several days. The first was the world-famous Hollidazzle. Not so world-famous? Not a problem. What happened was that we decided to go on Mivtzoyim on Nicollet Mall again, only problem being that they have a holiday parade on Thursdays and weekends. Did that bother us? Certainly not. Most of the people looked at me like I was crazy. Looking for Jews? At an X-Mas event? But hey, I found several, and gave out 4 menorahs, so it was all good. Admittedly, only two of those Menorahs were to Jewish people. I also got into a nice little fight with a Baptist. He started trying to proselytize to me, and I kept trying to explain that I wasn't interested. He didn't really get it. "But your sin!" he said. "What about my sin?" I responded. "Your sin!?" He said again. I asked, "What business of yours is my sin?" He said, "How will you get to Paradise?" I told him that I could care less about Paradise. I wanted to tell him that he wasn't religious, just selfish, but his wife and kids were with him, so I didn't really have the heart. I'm religious because I want to serve G-d. I was created to serve G-d. I am not doing this in order to sip nectar, play the harp, or get seventy virgins. Or white grapes. That's simply not the goal of my life. Though those white grapes sure do sound tempting.

Oh, the second parade? YHSTC's very own Menorah parade. I got a ride with a a dedicated reader of this blog, because Shillibeer's car had a bottle of vinegar explode a couple of days ago, and as you may one day find out, that's really not such a good thing. So yeah, the parade was nice , even if most of the Menorahs didn't actually light up, and the Kumzitz at Yeshiva afterward was enjoyed by the thousands who attended. You don't believe me? You doubt the veracity of my numbers? Were you there? I didn't think so buster.

Oh, and in between the parades, the Rosh came to town. He was, as always, quite entertaining. He started to curse me out, for not standing during Keriah, but then I told him that there was another Minyan for it later on. I'm just glad he didn't notice my cuff links.
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Meanwhile, in other news, though I distinctly remember writing it, I can't find my post that deals with reasons why people would want to worship the sun. Perhaps it's the post that's referenced on July 15, 2007 over here. Go look it up.