Friday, August 28, 2009

"Old situations, new complications...something happened on the way..."

A funny thing happened a few days ago.

We were visiting my son this week. As he and I were standing in line in a restaurant on 33rd Street, waiting to pay for some take-out, I was asking him some questions about his relationships and those of his friends.

I then asked "are Moishie and Berl dating?"

Being a little hard of hearing, I may have spoken a bit too loud.

The gentleman in front of us turned around, and with a look of utter astonishment looked us up and down, and left the line shaking his head.

I burst out laughing. This was my first experience.

"Something appealing, something appalling, something for everyone: a comedy tonight."

Be well.

Saul David

Sunday, August 9, 2009

"The Awesome, Who shows no favor and takes no bribe, but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow and befriends the stranger..." Devarim10:17

In yesterday's d'var Torah, our rabbi spoke about the importance of all of us accepting all of klal yisroel and the rest of the world. It would be the utmost act of piety.

At the kiddush, I went over to the rabbi and told him how much I liked what he said.

Then I told him that I have an issue that I would like to discuss with him.

I stated that when a Palestinian storms a yeshiva and kills young men, we say tehillim and kel maaleh rachamim and hold rallies all over the city.

When a Charedi storms a youth center which happens to be a refuge for gay kids, not a word is spoken in synagogue, not a prayer is made for the wounded or killed, no kel maaleh rachamim is chanted, no tehillim are read.

His response to me was that he was on vacation last weekend without an internet connection so he did not hear anything about it.

I said that his response saddens me even more because if it was deemed a terrorist attack then even without an internet connection, he would have heard the news.

Shame.

SD

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

"There was a shooting in Tel Aviv, but I wasn't there OR How I was almost outed by my mother"

Last Saturday night there was a shooting in a gay drop in center in Tel Aviv.

My son is currently in Israel and he sent his family a short email stating that he is ok and he was not in Tel Aviv during the shooting.

Shabbat ended late. We had to get up very early the next morning to catch a plane to attend a family simcha and all we received was this quick and cryptic note on my blackberry as we were sitting on board the plane.

We weren't aware what had transpired in Tel Aviv.

Later on, as we were sitting at a table with my in-laws and my wife's siblings, all of whom don't know that our son is gay (or so we think), my wife asked if anyone heard what happened in Israel because "we received an email from our son that he wasn't there and he is ok."

My brother-in-law said that there was a shooting at a gay bar in Tel Aviv and everyone looked at us with an expression of "why would he be at a gay bar in Tel Aviv?"

Ooops.

Be well

SD