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The Short Vort- -“ PGIF and the Triple Play” (9/3/10)
The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Friday the 24th of Elul 5770 and September 3, 2010
PGIF and the Triple Play
It was Friday at 7:09 pm and I had just arrived for Mincha.
There was only one other person in the Shul and he was yawning and looking exhausted as I entered.
As soon as he saw me, he perked up and began to pull himself together.
I really can’t stand when people do that.
Why do people think they cannot appear tired in front of the rabbi?
Do they think I never sleep?
Well I hate to burst your bubble of me, however, I do (not as much as I would like to) sleep!
And guess what? I am sometimes tired!
Anyway, let’s continue.
So this fellow who is tired and exhausted, jumps up and says, “Oh, rabbi, sorry I am so tired. However, Thank G-d it’s Friday! I just so need shabbos to be able to recharge my batteries. I am sure you know that as a rabbi, you can relate to that! Therefore my motto rabbi is TGIF- Thank G-d it’s Friday!”
Me:
“No sir, as a matter of fact, I cannot relate to that at all. In truth, while for you, today is the end of the work week and the beginning of ‘off-time’, for me it is not the case at all.
Today, Friday afternoon, is like Monday morning 8 A.M. for you!
Right now the ‘fun’ is just beginning.
Therefore for me it is not TGIF-
Rather, for me it is PLIF-
Please G-d (help me, because) It’s Friday!”
Indeed, Shabbos is the day when I say, “Although, I would never trade my Shabbos for anyone else’s”; nevertheless, it is grueling. And the gruel begins on Friday morning.
For some reason which I have never figured out, most marital, health and financial issues always seem to explode on Fridays!
Therefore, when I sit down at my desk on Friday at 9 o’clock, after learning the Daf and Davening, time becomes my biggest concern.
However, there is one especially time sensitive issue which is particular to my life which exists on Fridays.
Being that my three oldest sons live in Jerusalem and the two oldest are married with children of their own, Fridays are a particularly challenging time.
I so look forward to speaking to my sons and daughters in law, (Hashem has blessed me with the world greatest daughters in law) and my grandchildren.
However, since there exists a seven time difference between the two countries, when it’s 10 in the morning by us and the day is just beginning, Shabbos can be already arriving in Yerushalayim!
Too often –especially in the winter- by the time I pick up the phone, it is Shabbos in Jerusalem.
However, today, I hit the ‘hat trick’- I had a ‘triple play’!
(In sport, a hat-trick (or hat trick) means to achieve a positive feat in the sport three times during a game, or other achievements based on threes. For instance in association football or ice hockey a player might score three goals, whilst in cricket a bowler might take three wickets in three deliveries.)
Today at 10 o’clock my youngest son called me from the Holy City.
We chatted and chilled and not more than thirty seconds after we hung up, my second son called to talk. And to make it a clean sweep, as I was finishing up the conversation, my oldest son called in.
Indeed, I believe it was the first time in a long time that all three of them called and I was free and able to spend some time talking to all of them!
And although these words were originally intended to be penned at 11 in the morning, and now it is after 7 P.M. and Shabbos is arriving, I had to tell you this.
If my children only knew how much it meant to me that each one took the time to call their old Pop and wish him a good Shabbos, they would run to call.
It meant so much to me and it costs so little.
I had a smile on my face the entire day.
Friends, Rosh Hashanah is Wednesday night; make sure you call your mother or call your brother; there is nothing you can do which costs so little, yet, is so valuable!