Souls on Fire

This is a post for th efuture, I'd like to be able to look back at
this year's Lag Bomer and remember how it was the most enjoyable I'd
had in recent memory. Truth be told, Lag b'O was always something to remember as a kid, but ever since, it's never been anything really. Last year however, was straight up sad. It just seemed to be wherever i went to try and celebrate this beautiful holiday of ours, all i heard and experienced was how it was in the good ole days and how back then there was really something to celebrate. Whatever... maybe more in that topic another time.

First stop was in East Norwich L.I. where we heard Merkavah play and made a last-minute medurah out of the rabbi's sukkah. The wood had been left out all winter (brilliant!)so it took two three tries before the thing would catch. So i turned the guys place up side down looking for paper. Nothing. Not a single newspaper, supermarket handout, nothing that wasn't Torah. brilliant. I ended up burning a few Mishpacha magazines (may the holy one, eliyashav, forgive my sin) some soda can boxes, and whatever else i could get my hands on.(i aint saying what else..) In any event, it was the most beautiful fire i'd seen in a looooongtime. Everyone loved it, it made the evening.

Arriving in The Schuneh at 12, im ready to crash n burn (haha npi)when turning in to my alleyway i see that theres a medurah by Nooch's house. Everyone's there, i mean just EVERYone. Current friends, past friends, future friends. Friends who you've wanted to catch up with for ages but you never had a good enough reason to talk (makes sense?) Fiends who used to be friends and with time became drift-away-out-of-touch-but-ih'd-be-really-nice-to-become-friends-again-typa-friends. This guy Nooch is the man. He has a real koiyach (that rhymes with noiyach) to draw people in. An interesting thought occurred then, there are so many of us here living in '770' (interesting that you could live in a category, but true) yet you remain isolated from most of the others.(one of the strangest unwritten rules i've ever seen) everyone sticks to the ones they knew from before. Yet, put them in a friendly, schmoozy, environment, and suddenly you realize that yah, there actually is plenty you have in common, and what to talk about. Funny thing is, most of the day you're involved in social activity; be it learning with friends, talking (when your supposed to be learning) with friends, even mealtime is centered around conversation. Not to mention all the L'chaims (keinehoora) we attend. And what do you do when you have nothing better to do? Cellphones, texting, email, IM, blogging, facebook (facebooking to see if you got my voice message asking if you got my email about the instant message i sent you)...
Yet, the guy sitting next to you all frigging day long, him, NAH... why would he ant to speak to me?! We've got nothing in common. Anyway, he comes from THAT yeshivah.....lol
Strange, people are strange.

Anyhow, back to the present (or wherever we were) the farbregen was really nice, then the kumzitz started, awesome awesome kumzitz, 'specially the end (when isn't it?) Baruch A with the bongo and i jammed out to nyet nyet. good stuff.

In the meantime, we were burning everything and anything to keep the fire going, (takes alot when it goes for that long) i was using my car to bring wood from a construction site at the end of the alley, when two thoughts occurred to me. a) this is probably the only time in my life that i'm driving while U the I (i hope!) and b) it's interesting how certain thing have so little value to us at times, so little in fact, that we'll try and try in frustration to get rid of it. Yet the very same things, can have so much value, that we'll search high and low for it. Lag B'omer is such a time, when 'useless' discarded furniture, construction waste and anything that burns, has so much value, when usually, it's useless, an unwanted expenses, and if anything, dangerous.

Sometime in the night, i meet Chaim Herschel, (no last name, just Chaim Herschel, he's one of those, if you know what i mean) a wondering jew. Very geshmack. We farbreng, jam till 5:30. one crazy night.

Many reasons why this night was so special cannot be described easily in writing. Hopefully the pictures will remind me. Here are a few lines that passed through my head to remind me of what was so unique 'bout the whole experience

The chords are the same, yet seem to contain so much more when read by
the firelight.

It's a cool night, getting colder, we inch closer. With your front to the fire and back to the wind, you could feel both the cold and the warmth at once. The warmth entering, you can disregard the cold, albeit a reality, it matters not...

""""
New words in this post: ih'd, Lag b'O. everyone (that's for when you want to stress the 'every' in one, but not the whole word.) schmoozy.