That's a new organization in a new life. I am looking forward to Shabbes to have rest and to empty my mind. If i think too much, i work! I juggle with many things.
I try to find my place, a tiny place in the Jewish world.
Crown Heights, 2014, @emmarubinstein |
The women i met at the shul are very nice and i actually enjoy sharing Shabbes meals with them.
I have met an awesome woman at my Lubavitch shul. She is not Lubavitch. She is Sephardi and she is fascinated by Hasidism. She doesn't know the reasons.She is a beautiful person with a kind soul.
She was the first one to talk to me at the shul the first time i came.
Since then, she invited many times for a Shabbos meal.
The first time, she invited me with two other young women from the shul: one is going for a conversion (she has no Jewish lineage at all), the second one is doing teshuva.
My host asked me so many questions about my adventures in the Hasidic world in Brooklyn.
I didn't think that they will be touched by my stories and they all have the impression to travel in those areas they don't know yet! I didn't say everything, a lot less than on this blog where i too don't write everything.
Then, we went back home with joy, enlightenment till we heard what happened that night at 7 places in Paris. It was the 13th of November.
That day is still there: trains which stop, streets shut down and other stuffs.
We know that it won't stop that year.
Anyway!
Purim preparation, Paris 2016, @emmarubinstein |
I am still following my courses at the shul.
To study the Talmud is such an exercise and our teacher can disturb some ladies who enjoy course with more pedagogy. His style is more mathematical and rock'n'roll.
I enjoy his Ashkenazi jokes.
He is like the lady of Shabbes invitation: they don't judge the way of other people, Jewish or not, live.
During the winter Shabbes, the kind woman organizes tea time on Shabbes afternoon before the end of Shabbes. Her daughter or other children talk about the parasha of the week. She tells us some stories.
I liked that shul. I am trying to find tiny places in Paris where i can feel what i felt in huge places in Brooklyn. I need a sort of Jewish comfort. Except the Lubavitcher, many Jews are hiding that they are Jewish. You don't introduce yourself as a Jew like you can do in New York.
With my friends of the other shul, we have lunches, parties, concerts and lots of laughs. We have our headquarter, it's a restaurant. The original restaurant is in Tel-Aviv, they opened one in Paris. The owner is always happy to see us because he wants people who eat and drink L'chaim.
That woman at my shul doesn't like gossips. She doesn't allow herself to talk about others. She gave me the reasons lately: if you gossip, you give your mitzvot to the person you are criticizing. I like her story. She is in her 40s. Her father passed away when she was 14. Her mother, that i like a lot, who is coming from a family of Moroccan tzadik, didn't want to see sadness in her house. She brought happiness and joy by inviting many people for their Shabbat. Her daughter was into religion compares to her sons. She becomes more tziniut year after year.
His husband is a funny man. They are a very good match. She got married late because she wanted to choose the one.
Costumes and soldiers, paris, 2016, @emmarubinstein |
She told us that she has dreams and can see the future. Apparently, that works. That can be scary when it comes from someone else than myself. She had already dreamed of the husband of her daughter who is 10 years old.
My next post will be about a sofer. That was an awesome moment.
Pesach Kosher Vesameach!