Monday, December 25, 2006

Missing Out

I have already wrote about missing family and friends as a result of living thousands of miles (or kilometers I should say now) away.

Today specifically is very hard.

A very good friend of mine, let's just call him Chambre (to protect his identity), is getting married.

In lieu of embarrassing him in front of twenty friends at his aufruf I will embarrass him in front of the 100 or so anonymous and semi- anonymous people who stop by this blog (at least when my dad links to me).

I first met Chambre in summer camp around 10 years ago. One of my first memories of our friendship was when he checked me so hard during a hockey game that I literally flipped over. That's the kind of friend he is. In Yeshiva, Chambre was one of the few guys who did not think that I was out of my mind, and that a three- foot beard was actually a trendy fashion statement.

The Maharal explains the meaning of "u'kneh lecha chaver" in pirkei avos to mean,
"sheyihye nikneh lo chaver, shelo tusar hachaveiros mimeno clal (that the friend should be acquired to him, so that friendship will never leave him)."

Chambre is a friend in this classic sense, extremely loyal and honest. Our friendship is one of kinyan. He is the ultimate good guy.

As I said, not being there for this one is extremely hard, but we will be doing rikudim here in the holy land.

Mazel Tov

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey zev
its "chambre",thanks for protecting my identity...it was so thoughtful of you to post about the wedding and to get your thoughts, i truely missed you at the aufruf. i tried to give you a call before but no one picked up and your message thing was full so i couldnt leave a message, i will try again soon as i want to speak to you before the wedding as i was thinking about you. if you have a chance call hooie's phone as he will be with me(reminiscent of anything?)...anyway i truely miss you and have you in mind on this day...
hoping to dance with you soon in the holy land
love
chambre

Anonymous said...

I guess you are lucky that you have a friend that checks your blog every 5 minutes.
Chambre isn't here right now, but I want you to know that reading your post really meant a lot to him.
In your honor, I will bl"n rip off Chambre's tie today at the wedding. If I'm really feeling it, I may even burn it as shtick (I'm not joking).
Hope to speak to you soon
Hooie
PS - Moshe Hus sends very warm regards. If he ever used a computer, he promises he would visit your blog.

Anonymous said...

Zev

"I have already wrote"? After $150,000 of tuition the least you can do is fix that sentence.

Other than that, a beautiful post. We always loved Hooie and Chambre.

OOS said...

Your fault Dad-- you sent me to Rambam
Furthermore, as my Hebrew improves me don't talk English so good.

Anonymous said...

Wedding was great!

Chambre's family put on quite a party. They danced up a storm and boy can that guy sing. Even the older men were leibedik.

Anonymous said...

Zev,
The wedding was great. I'm sorry you couldn't be there.
Please thank your father for his post (getting mentioned on his blog is very chashuv). It really means a lot.
Hooie