The second and final post on this topic.

It wasn’t very long ago when I reported on the demise of one Cookie Cat and the response of Mr. Moby to her disappearance. We wondered how long it would take for him to adjust to his new situation, and would he act any differently now that he was the remaining cat on the campus. The short answer is that, once he got used to being alone, he decided that he would have to be her surrogate and do some of the things she used to do, to wit: He began waiting to get brushed every morning, which he never did before. He began to curl up and sleep on Natania’s desk chair, one of Cookie’s favorite spots. He began keeping Natania company at her laptop – even joining me once in a while – whereas before, the only desk he would deign to grace was Barbara’s. He began dividing his time at night, sleeping half the time with Barbara, as he always had, and half the time with me. I began talking to him more, and I thought maybe he might begin to react to verbal cues (Moby, do you want something to eat?) Perhaps if we had had more time….. Continue reading →

Shabbat mornings, after a few of us stalwarts learn some Mishna with Rabbi Gedalia at 7:30, and the congregation slogs through the longer-than-necessary davening at 8, I am eager to return home to make kiddush. One or two of my buddies join me for some whiskey and herring, and maybe a little more whiskey, and maybe a little more herring… I, of course, make myself some coffee, because why wouldn’t you want some coffee to go along with the whiskey? It’s a time to relax and chew the fat, before we all need to get ready for lunch with whomever we’re having lunch.

One of my kiddush stalwarts, we’ll call him “M”, is a convert and grew up in a very different environment in the mid-west from what life was like back in The Bronx. I’ve heard his story about his father bringing home a snow shovel or an old lawnmower and handing it to him. The implication was very clear: “Go out and earn some money.” OK. Except that M’s father expected him to pay him back for the shovel, the lawnmower, or whatever! I’m glad my parents didn’t charge me rent for the use of the wagon I used to deliver The Bronx Home News. Continue reading →

Now that we have properly but reluctantly said goodbye to Cookie, let us return, if we may, to the southwest corner of India…

Sunday, Feb. 14, the last “real day” of our adventure, and I could sense things staring to unravel at the fringes. One couple left first thing in the morning for parts unknown. More important to the group, both Ari’s had taken off. But at least we found out where they were headed. They had received word of another small group, B’nei Ephraim, all the way up north, who were claiming some connection to the Jewish people. I don’t blame the two Ari’s one bit for deciding that they had to check them out. When would they get another chance? The two of them would rejoin us at the airport for the journey back to The Land, and with any luck, they would have something exotic to report back. Continue reading →

I intend to finish my series about India, but this needs to get written first……..

It was sometime in November, 2010, and I was reading the posts on the Nefesh B’Nefesh e-mail group (something I no longer do). There was one that I had to show to Barbara. “Don’t answer it!” was her response. We agreed I wouldn’t, at least long enough to see if the guy would post it again. But one week later, sure enough, the exact same post appeared, and I didn’t need to read between the lines to understand how frantic he must have been. Continue reading →

The very first official activity of the OU Adventure to India took place at the airport even before we got on the El Al plane headed to Mumbai. Each of us, in a very informal type of ceremony, received an enormous folder of information about Jewish India – which we could read at our leisure – and a daily itinerary, every day’s activities printed on a separate 4×11.5 inch card, all of which were fastened together with a ring. So, looking ahead (or back), what was scheduled for Fri. Feb. 12 (otherwise known as 3 Adar I)?

Enjoy a boat ride on the backwaters of Cochin, where ocean salt water mixes with fresh inland water. See the spectacular forest, water birds, wild flowers, and lush greenery. Along the way see small villages, rubber trees, and an area of water where no fish can live. Continue reading →

There were only two dubious moments on our OU Adventure, when the outcome unquestionably failed to meet the expectation. One of these you already know about (assuming you have been reading these articles all along), the decision to do our morning prayers on the top deck of a small boat in the Arabian Sea. The second one also seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turned out to be the absolute low point of our trip. Unfortunately it came the day after the high point, our visit to the former-Christian community in Erode, sort of like going from the sublime to the abysmal.

The original plan had been to drive to the Coimbatore airport and take a charter flight to Cochin, one hour away. But… by the time we would ride to the airport, go through security, wait to board the plane, disembark at the other end, find our luggage, get back on another bus, and ride to our hotel, we might as well just stay on the first bus and head up the new highway to Cochin – about a four hour journey. If we were to do that, we could stop along the way at a place with elephants. As I said, sounded like a reasonable plan, better than going through the rigmarole at the airport any more than was absolutely necessary. Plus, elephants being such a big feature of the Indian landscape, it sort of fit into the scheme of things. Continue reading →

Imagine this happening to you: You’re standing in a throng of people, and suddenly they are all giving you a Standing “O.” “Wait a cotton-picking minute,” you think, “What have I done deserve this? The guy on my left, and the lady on my right, maybe they’ve done something special. But me, I haven’t done diddley-squat.” Continue reading →

When Barbara first started thinking about signing up for the OU Israel Adventure to India and was more than hinting that she’d like me to join her, I figured that I at least ought to take a gander at the itinerary. If nothing else, I would have an idea what it was I wasn’t interested in seeing and where it was I wasn’t interested in going. So I started making comments in the margins of the pages she gave me: very interested, somewhat interested, or not at all interested. The activity that got my lowest interest rating was going to a village to meet a congregation of men and women who had collectively abandoned Christianity and were attempting as best they could to live as Jews. All well and good, but the thought of interacting with them in small groups interested me not a whit. What was I to say to them beyond, “What, are you nuts?” Converting to Judaism is difficult enough under normal circumstances, but sooner or later they would most likely have to deal with the Israeli Rabbinate, and that is a fate I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

Proverbial spoiler alert: By unanimous consent (that means including me), our visit to Erode was the absolute highlight of our trip. Here’s what went on. Continue reading →