26 reasons to celebrate

Starting the second half of my twenties may seem daunting, but I think if you are happy with your life, it shouldn't seem too daunting at all.  Here are 26 reasons I am grateful here at 26.

1. Shifra - My true partner in everything we do together, the person who gets me most. So grateful to have grown up together and gotten married so young together. She is literally amazing at getting so much done in such little time, and her heart is always in the right place. Can't wait to continue to grow together. 
2. Eitan - My mini-me. Love this guy to bits. Super smart, athletic, funny, devilish, and musical. Lights up a room, and is a center of attention. Also has sensitive/shyness. 
3. Hadar - the cutest little girl around. Loves Eitan and me, and is very attached to Shifra. Calls me YaYee. Super fun, loves when I chase her, loves to copy her brother and laugh with him. Loves when we read to her. 
4. Young Family - I am so glad to have started my family at such a young age. It really feels like we are growing with each other, and even with our kids. 
5. Parents - My parents are the best. It is so fun to see them interacting with our kids. They are proud of us and love us. They raised a really good, solid, loving family. 
6. Fry and Nav - Always grateful to have such a close relationship with both. The relationships are unique, but special with both. They are both so amazing, and giving of themselves to others. Love our "real talk" conversations. Hope to have much good news here soon. Great Aunt and Uncle. 
7. In Laws - They are so great. Always helpful, interested in what we have to say, and close with our kids. All of them are good for a great conversation in the middle of the day, and I love when we go out to hang out with them. 
8. Grandparents - So grateful to have a strong relationship with all 4 of my grandparents, and I cherish every second I get to spend with them, in person or on the phone. They have raised amazing families. And I love that they are best friends. 
9. Learning with Zayde - During the first Seger, I asked Zayde if he'd want to learn with me in the mornings. Not only is it my main and consistent lifeline to Torah, it is so special to have a set time to learn with my grandfather. It started when I was 6 at the Kollel, took 13 year break, and resumed even stronger. 
10. Health - I never take health for granted. BH, most of my life has been healthy. Even my vision issues have sorted themselves out to the point where I can function completely, including sports, driving, work, etc.
11. Family - All of my cousins are so unique and special, and I just love them. My aunts and uncles are amazing. I have completely different relationships with them, and they are all strong. Love each and every one of them.
12. Yeshiva - Where I grew from boy to man, and dove in to the Torah world. Love the people, especially my year and other Chavrutot. Loved the flexibility it provided me early in my career to combine Torah Va'avoda. I feel like I carry the Yeshiva with me everywhere I go. I have a picture of the yeshiva as my wallpaper on work laptop. Hope to go back at least once a year in Elul. 
13. Zak - Realized my potential, gave me a chance to succeed, and never stopped pushing me for excellence. Was so hard to leave. The 3 years under him gave me such a headstart in my career. Love our yearly "thank you" Roza outing. Who knows where I would be without him. 
14. Pano - A really strong, growing company that really cares about the inidividuals. Selfless founders, strong leadership team, and a perfect company size for me - not tiny, but not too big. Love the team here, and the emphasis placed on the marketing operations department. 
15. Israel/Aliyah - Can not fathom the possibility of not having moved to our amazing country. Thankful every day for making Aliyah when we did. Amazing to think about the different opportunities I've had here. Every day I put on my IDF uniform I had goosebumps, through the ups and downs of my service. Amazing that a boy born in Detroit met a girl born in London, living on the same street in Modi. 
16. Lions - At my Bar Mitzvah, I joked that I loved them but they never loved me back. Since then, all they've done is show me love. Getting to go on the field, meet some of my favorites like Calvin, Suh, tour the practice facility, are things I would never take for granted. The video they made about me is an absolute life highlight. Also, it seems like Campbell and Holmes finally have this thing in the right place moving forward. 
17. Kiryat Shmona - An amazing, calm place that was a perfect place to start our marriage. There is something magical about that area, that gives me internal happiness whenever I go there. Thankful to have worked at the Makolet for 9 months in the morning, where I got to truly meet the Kiryat Shmona people. 
18. Modi - A perfect city to raise children, and to have grown up. Everything we need is there, and I am excited to be moving back there. 
19. MOPerations - A community I created for marketing operations pros in Israel. Super helpful, we already had our first event, with much more planned. I am hopeful that the product can launch as well. 
20. Friends forever - My boys in Modiin. Love them so much, love that we stayed close, even as each of us ventured off in different directions. Love every time we get to meet up. Also my boys from Kiryat Shmona. Chavrutas and my Shiur. Lucky to have been part of it.
21. Couple friends - we have 8 or 9 couples we are extremely close with, where the husbands and wives are close, and vice versa. Super important to me, and I don't take for granted that it would work out like that. 
22. KSYM - Always felt part of this amazing community, even while living away. COVID was great because I got to be part of all the events and Shiurim virtually. 
23. Hashgacha - I always feel like Hashem is watching over me. There are too many coincidences and opporutnities I have gotten for it to all be a true coincidence. 
24. Israeli Hitech - A dream. Was never my goal, but so happy I got to it. It is a great time in my life to enjoy 10bis, the company parties, getaways, flexibility, etc. 
25. Rabbis - I am very connect to many different Rabbis, from many areas of my life. Rabbi S, Rav Y, Rabbi B, Rabbi N, Rav E, Rabbi E, Rabbi SK. I feel blessed to be connected to so many inspirational people. 
26. Technology - I love learning new tech, whether through playing with it myself or through online courses, and using it to its fullest. I love that I can listen to so many amazing and talented Jewish musicians whenever I want.

Modiin2weeks

4 leave office, walk to Hashalom

4:20 train to Kfar Saba

5:20 realize bus to Yishuv skipped my stop

5:30 train to ranana

5:45 bus to Beit Lid

6:30 bus to Yishuv

7:20 arrive in yishuv and walk home

7:30 walk home

3.5 total time. Could've gotten the 845 back to KY8 in that time. #modiin2weeks

P.S. Shoutout to Bubi who came to hang out with Eitan for a few hours today, and shoutout to me for not being closed off in the room the whole time but instead being in Tel Aviv. 

A Key to A Good Day

 I am no stranger to key issues. I took my parents car keys up to Kiryat Shmona with me one time. Another time, I locked S in the house accidentally, and took both keys with me (old house = you could only open from the inside with a key as well). But today was a different story. 

I was jogging to the bus in the morning (literally in single not plural because there is only one a day), when I realized I had both sets of keys. Now, fine, the house could be open for a couple hours while S went to teach. But the real problem was, she needed to take the kids to Maon. I didn't want to miss my bus, because I BT and TT were taking D and I out for a steak lunch at one of my favorite restaurants. 

I didn't have time to run back if I was gonna make the bus. So as I was jogging down the street, I was looking for someone to hand the keys to and ask them to bring to S. No such thing happened, as I found myself at the bus stop, huffing and puffing, with both keys in my hand, and the sound of the bus coming towards us. I quickly placed the keys in the corner of the bus stop, and got on the bus. From there, I wrote in every group I was part of that had people in the Yishuv, asking if someone wouldn't mind bringing it to S. 

About 15 minutes later, someone I don't know left their house, got the key, drove it to our apartment, and gave S the keys. A definite advantage to living in the Yishuv, is the fact that I was ok leaving the keys in the bus stop, and also that I had faith that someone (who I probably wouldn't know very well), would be willing to save the morning. 

Eitan Sleep on Floor

 It seems things just come naturally to our oldest. Tonight, while lying in bed, he called Shiff in, and had the following Dialogue:

"Mummy, want tell you something."

"Eitan want sleep on floor"

"Eitan Ready"

"Eitan lie down, not get up, wait for Mummy Daddy".

The kid came with an agenda, a plan of action, and totally got his way. He is now on the floor on a mattress, in a big boy bed.

Is this the end of the crib era for him?

A Youthful Shavuot

 Shavuot 2022 was a pretty successful one in my eyes. We heated up Buchman's Pizza for dinner once Shabbat ended, and then it was off to Shul. Shifra gave a Shiur/Activity to 15 k-3 kids at 10:30. We then learned Rut for a little bit. Finally, it was time for the first Shiur of the night for me. I gave it to 6th-8th grade boys, outside on the Pergula. It went fine, message delivered, but most of them weren't in.a listening mode at 12:30 AM. At 1:45, however, I gave the same Shiur to 9th-12th boys and girls. There were about 100 kids in there, and relatively very good participation and quiet. It went extremely well in my opinion, and a lot of them came to thank me after. The shiur was about stop counting down the days, start making the days count. It started off speaking about how `Judasim views counting, and moved to how Judaism says to spend their day. I brought charts showing how teenagers spend their time, and it worked pretty well. After that was ice cream, and then a couple hours later, it was time for the Tish.

Everyone was in a huge circle, also about 100 kids. There was singing, and I told 3 stories. Daniel getting lost in Prague, Yossaleh Kamtzan Kadosh, and May Garbage Save Your Life. THere was amazing quiet for the stories, and I channeled my deep-down Bnei Akiva to get them to be quiet (hand motions, different volumes of speech, pauses where appropriate, etc.). After that, we all battled through Shacharit, got back to my parents, played with Eitan, and went to sleep. I woke up for lunch at the in-laws, and went back to sleep at my parents (after a quick detour downstairs at my parents towards their BBQ - was awesome!). 

Shul pretty happy with how we did for our first real event. All in all, a great (albeit different) shavuot. 

Matan Torah

 As Shavuot is coming, I needed to share my favorite Matan Torah story.

There we were, a couple of dumb 12th graders, in Yeshivat Kiryat Shmona, checking out the place for next year (and the next 8 for me but whatever). We go into Rav Drori's Shiur on Orot Hateshuva. Now, Rav Drori, is a complete Tzaddik, almost 80 years old, was Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook's elite student, and was giving a shiur to Shiur Aleph at the time. At some point, he reads a line in Rav Kook Senior's book Orot Hateshuva, and says "Who wants to try to explain what this means?" Of course, my best friend picks up his hand, and everyone is looking our way. Shvushim don't usually participate in Shiuring, definitely don't share opinions. But Matan is Matan, and so of course he did.

Rav Drori was very impressed with his answer, and was curious to know the name of this brilliant young mind. This part needs to be hebrew, because I remember it so clearly:

יפה..איך קוראים לך?

אני מתן

אההה...מתן תורה

לא. מתן בירינבוים. 

Dead.