Another Chance

Every day my mother says a few Kapital Tehillim for the safety of Eretz Yisroel. Last Friday the week of the convention my mother wasn't able to say it by Shachris like she usually does. She made a mental note to say the Perakim by Mincha. By Mincha time it was busy and my mother forgot to say them. Later on Shabbos by the meal at convention, the Mechanchim and Mechanchos decided to Daven for the safety of Eretz Yisroel and divide up Sefer Tehillim  amongst themselves. The Perakim my mother got were the Perakim she says every day.

Lost in the Museum

Bais Yaakov Convention 2012 was unbelievable. Yavne High School did an amazing job. From decorations, to the Chidon, to entertainment, to (my favorite) the "CLEAVLAND! CLEAVLAND! WELCOME TO OUR CITY......" cheer.
Sunday we went on a trip to the Science Museum. It was very entertaining. Some girls were running up down escalators. Some played Hide-and-Go Seek. some played "Guess the price" in the gift shop, ($9.99 for a rubber ball!?!?!) and others actually looked around at the exhibits.
Later when it was time to board the buses to head back, some of the chaperone's went around the museum, letting the girls know it was time to leave. I went to the second floor to round up the girls.
"Hi girls, the buses are here." I told a group of girls.
Seven girls came over to me and said that their friend Esti lost a mug she bought at the gift shop.(I'm not going to even guess how much that was)
Esti and her friends were looking for  twenty minutes already and had not found it.
"Where were you when you realized you were missing it?" I asked Esti.
"I was on this floor. I'm sure I lost it here," she said looking around.
"Ok, I'll help you, but before I start lets say the Amar Binyamin Tefillah you say on a lost object."
 אמר רבי בנימין, הכל בחזקת סומין, עד שהקדוש ברוך הוא מאיר את עיניהם. מן הכא, ויפקח אלוקים את עיניה ותרא באר מים, ותלך ותמלא את החמת.
אלהא דמאיר ענני, אלהא דמאיר ענני, אלהא דמאיר ענני. בזכות הצדקה שאני נודב לעילוי נשמת רבי מאיר בעל הנס, זכותו יגן עלינו, למצוא את האבידה שאיבדתי
As soon as I finished saying it, I saw a man holding a bag from the gift shop.
"Maybe he picked up that bag thinking it was his." I said to Esti. "Lets ask him if he can check the bag, maybe its yours."
While we were in middle of explaining to him that we were looking for a lost bag,  he interrupted us and said.
"Here, this is your bag I found it by the water exhibit I was going to bring it to the Lost and Found!"

KH and HP

A group of high school girls were shopping at a dollar store to buy things for a school program. The dollar store they went to was a far out and not in the Jewish community. As the girls were leaving the store, a man approached them and said:
"Excuse me, but there was young lady here a little bit ago and I think she lost her cell phone here. For some reason I feel you might know her. She dressed and acted like you girls. There is something about this young lady and you girls that make me think you are related. You both are very refined well behaved."
The girls said they would look at the phone and see if any of the numbers were familiar
Turns out that the phone belonged to one of the teachers in the elementary school.
What Hashgacha Pratis and a Kiddush Hashem!

 

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy has been the topic of discussion in most house holds the last week and a half. When ever its discussed (which is pretty often) everyone has something to add. While we were talking about Hurricane Sandy (again) a girl said. "Do we have to talk about Hurricane Sandy again, can we change the topic?"
Sure I said. "Hows the weather?"

Why is weather the most fascinating subject? When you meet someone after the "Hello, how are you?" you somehow always find yourself  talking about the weather. Try not talking about the weather to anyone for a whole day. It's pretty hard.

While we're on the topic of weather, here are some HP stories on Hurricane Sandy. (There are many many more.)

Rabbi Frankel was the rabbi of the Shul Agudas Yisroel. It was the night of the hurricane and he was trying get a Minyan for Maariv. Rabbi Frankel  texted Benny Gross, one of congregants to see if he was able to come for the Minyan. Benny really did not want to leave his house and  was nervous to go out. After the second text from his Rabbi, Benny decided it was the right thing to do and he drove to the Shul to join the Minyan. After Maariv, he headed home and  was shocked to see that a HUGE tree right in front of his house fell right where his car was parked only twenty minutes before. HP!

The Rasmon family from Israel was flying to Detroit for a Chasunah. When they were booking their flights earlier this month they were trying to get a stop over in New York and from there get a connecting flight to Detorit. Each time they tried to book the flight, it wouldn't work. Frustrated they tried again, but then the flights were very expensive. Finally, they just decided to make a flight with a stop over in Amsterdam instead of New York.
Last week when Hurricane Sandy hit New York all of the airports were shut down. Had the Rasmon family stopped off in New York they would have been stuck there and missed the wedding. HP!

Missed Flight

Shiffy, a tenth grader told me this AMAZING HP story.

Last week Monday, her grandmother had a flight to Israel. Right before her grandmother was supposed to board the plane, she felt dizzy and did not feel well. She chose not to board the plane and she missed her flight to Israel. She went to get her luggage but she was told that it was loaded on to the plane already.
 "Oh well", she said to herself, "I'll have lost luggage."
Right then, a worker came running over to her to let her know that there was a hold on the luggage and it wasn't loaded yet. Baruch Hashem, she got her luggage.
A little bit later she returned home and was feeling much better.
 Late that night Shiffy's grandmother suddenly fell and was rushed to hospital. At the hospital the doctors told her that if she had waited even one more hour she would not have made it out alive. Shiffy's grandmother was very thankful for not boarding the plane.
Shiffy's grandmother was released from the hospital on Friday and is doing much better!

PICKED ON

It's that time of year. BAIS YAAKOV CONVENTION. This year it will be held in Cleveland, Ohio. Every year our school gets a certain amount of slots for the twelfth graders. This years senior class has a total of thirteen girls! For the convention they were given seven slots.
Only seven out of thirteen can go?!? Yeah sometimes life's not fair. Every school around the country has a different way of choosing which girls can go on the convention. Some send their G.O. heads, some choose who would best represent their school, some vote, and some do lots. That's what we do.
The day when we were choosing the lots the whole senior class was busy saying Tehillim the whole day. They got the whole school to say Tehillim for them. I wrote each of the girls names on a piece of paper, cut them up and placed them in an empty (laffy taffy) bucket. I went to the High School Mechanechet to tell her we were ready for the drawing of the names. The Mechanchet and I entered the Twelfth grade classroom and were about to begin. (by now the whole Sefer Tehillim was said at least three times)
"Who teaches you now?" the Mechanechet asked before we began.
"We have goverment now, Mr. Sanders is always late," they answered.
Right when we were about to start,  in walked Mr. Sanders.
"OK, it looks like we'll have to do it later." the Mechanechet said.
"It's OK, you can do it now, I don't mind." Mr. Sanders said.
"Yeah, lets do it now." the girls cried. (seriously cried)
"No, we'll do it later."
"But we get out early today," one girl said.
"How about you let them out five minutes early Mr. Sanders, and we'll do it then." the Mechanechet said.
The girls agreed and they started class.
I went back to my office and on my desk I saw I forgot to put one girls name in.
HP!
Imagine if we would have done it then! (When we did it after class, the girl that I forgot to put in was actually one of the girls picked to go on convention)