Chabad of Walnut Creek

The apartment saga continues, but I'm sick of worrying about it, which means you're probably sick of hearing about it.

Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah starts tonight, the final festival of the high holidays where we finish reading the Torah, rewind and begin again, and all get liquored up and dance around with the Torah. It's one of the best chagim. The dancing goes on for like 2 or 3 hours tomorrow morning, which is a little bit much for me, so what I usually do is cut out of my Ashkenazi shul and go to all the other shuls, visiting the Yemenites, Moroccans, Chabadniks, Turks, and everyone in between. I'll dance around for twenty minutes or so in a shul and make sure to bump into all my friends and oodles of cousins, then continue on to the next shul. I end up back at my own shul and finish up here. Tomorrow night Rafi gives his annual concert for the entire town in the main square in Pisgat Ze'ev.

As for me, I'm finally almost recovered from jetlag. I've slept a full seven hours for the last two nights in a row, and during normal hours. Still a bit exhausted, but whaddya gonna do. The trick to jetlag is: don't nap. Drink lots of caffiene and stay up all day. Only allow yourself to sleep when it's dark out. That seemed to do the trick.

Meanwhile, here are some photos I took during my trip to Walnut Creek, from the morning minoyan at Chabad:

Dovber leads the davening. Everyone is still a little bleary eyed. After all, it's only like 9AM.

Rabbi with Pinchas (left) and Ruvein (right.)

Aryeh, fresh as a daisy.

A pensive and distracted Nissin

Ruvein the Cohen takes his aliyah. "NO NO! I'm NOT RUSSIAN, I'm AZERBAIJANI!"

Chag Sameach! A Gut Yontiff!