As in, "New Beginnings"

I was reading the Merkos Shlichus blog tonight, and I really missed it. I mean, missed being on Merkos Shlichus. Sure, it's not all it's cracked up to be (trust me), but at the same time it is amazing. So anyway, I thought I'd do a couple things. One is to divide this big post into a bunch of little ones (pity I never managed to save the comments), and the other is to reprint over here some of the fascinating tales that I recorded so many moons ago. Oh, and one more thing. It appears that I once made someone, and I quote, "ridiculously excited". Go check it out. So, without further ado, I present to you, my faithful readers (all two of you), The Inviolable Redundant Tautology!

Post #1: Getting Started... (Wednesday, July 11, 2007)

Wow! I'm finally on Merkos Shlichus, Roving Rabbis, whatever you want to call it. Point is, I'm here doing the Rebbe's work. Sure, the Talmud says that "G-d has many messengers" meaning that we're all sent out by G-d to improve this world, but this is something different. This is direct, official, no holds-barred action, bringing Jews closer to their Father in heaven, and bringing me closer to tuna and Matza. (There's very little Kosher food here, and tuna and matza are extremely transportable.) OK, things aren't that bad, thank heaven for Walmart and 7-11, which, by the way, is having free slurpies today. So, we're saving money for the cause, huh?

Post #2: Moving Right Along (Wednesday, July 11, 2007)

I'm actually doing something quite unique among roving rabbi types. For the first several weeks my partner, Shua Popper, and I are teaching people in a Chabad House and also going out in the (semi) wild west to look for people. Later we'll rove exclusively, but for now it's both. And you know what? They're both quite challenging.

For example, the first city we visited was S. Joseph, Missouri. It was a hot day. For some reason we couldn't find any contacts that the previous groups had made, so we were basically on our own. We were walking by the police station when we suddenly heard banging. Of course we looked up, and there was a guy waving at us. "Hey," we thought, "this is pretty easy! These guys are begging us to come!"

So we walked in, and the kind receptionist said, "People banging and waving? Oh, those must be the prisoners." And no, we weren't allowed to go and see if any were Jewish. The lady did give us the names and addresses of the two local synagogues, so we resolved to check out the situation. On our way back to the car I noticed the county office, so we went in. The commissioner was also very nice, and he was even friends with a (minister? priest? reverend?) "clergyman of another faith" who sits with the rabbi of one of the local synagogues on an interfaith board, and so we got a phone number. No one picked up the phones, or was by the synagogues, which was too bad.

Next Time: City Hall, Antiques, Baseball, and the local library

Post #3: Onward and Upward (Thursday, July 12, 2007)

Hey, just a quick shout out: we're, with G-d's help, going to Manhattan today. No, not the big city, the place in Kansas. Don't worry, I'll finish off with S. Joe. OK, got to run, there are Jews waiting to be found...