Curiouser and Curiouser

Warsaw doesn't have much that makes it a Chabad-house . . .
Save one thing . . .
We have our share of "interesting" people.

The Professor:
We met him in the Sholom restaurant near the synagogue . . . it used to be "kosher" -now it's not even that.
Each word that comes from his mouth is enunciated and punctuated with an almost hypnotic rhythm like the Cheshire cat . . .
He came to the Twarda synagogue with a hat made of newspaper, he comes to us in a yellow linen suite covered with cat hair and stains -on his way to give a big speech . . .
He he wants to learn with us, for though he is professor he is also a "Yeshiva Bochur" (Which he claims is a word that's easy to remember -since n Polish a Bochur means a troublesome boy -a brat . . .) and he does take what he learns very seriously . . . he meditates on it for several minutes before we put tefillin on him
When he came on Shobbos he turned to me every couple of minutes and said, "I must go and sin now . . . I'f you'll forgive me." (When we met him in the restaurant, he smoked five or six cigarettes in half an hour)

Two Thursdays ago he came to learn with van Halem and arrived with a massive carrot that he crunched on form time to time.
I don't mean a big carrot -I mean a Chernoble carrot . . . the kind that they use to make three square meals for two weeks straight and serve to several impoverished families in India . . . Try learning with a guy who has a carrot that large in his mouth, a cup of coffee in one hand, seltzer in the other and a cigarette ready to be used on the table.
Might I add, that he also speaks Dutch.


The Professor puts on tefillin for the first time.

The Business Man

Then there's Jake, a modern Orthodox guy who comes here from time to time . . . white slicked back hair parted to the side, a five o'clock shadow, and bright red tie.
He comes on Shabbos, davens with us, says a vart or two on the Parsha . . .
Oh yah, and might I add that he brings an escort with him a good twenty years younger then him.
Don't worry though, last week he told her that she, "She looks Jewish."

Don't get all cooked up about it . . .



Our cook, Yankel, left us the other day . . .
We made a goodbye party in his house -nosh from Belgium, Chocolate, and even that fancy Dutch Cheese
As of now, we're back to that good old fashioned Polish cooking: Potatoes and chicken, chicken and potatoes, chicken with potatoes and noodles.
Oh yah.