Hachever sheli Benyamin

Rarely do I sit down to write with a specific topic in mind, this may or may not surprise regular readers. Most of the time I just a get a though in my head, a song lyric, whatever it is and I go from there. Not so today, today I want to write a blurb about a very good friend of mine. This morning we said farewell, for the first time in a long time we will be living on opposite sides of a big ocean. On Sunday he is going back to Israel, back to Jerusalem, back to Aish HaTorah (but not for to long, you promised and I will not let you forget) and I am staying in New York.

Actually I am doing more then staying; I am (trying) to settling down. Putting down roots and establishing myself. I am ready to settle. But my friend Benyamin is not, right now he’s on fire, the Torah is burning inside of him, and in many ways I’m jealous. I in many ways wish I felt the same, but I don’t, I don’t want to spend any more time in yeshiva, the idea of spending all day learning Torah right now doesn’t appeal to me at all. I’m just not in that place, I want to be here, I want to be working; I want to be doing what I’m doing right now. It’s a good feeling knowing that I’m no track. But it also makes me sad, I long to attach myself to the Torah as fiercely as he is doing. I can’t believe that I have that feeling; that alone is proof of the great growth I’ve experienced in the last few years and I’m proud of it. But I don’t want to talk about me I want to talk about me and Ben, Ben and I. When two people engage in discussion, in deep discussion about the nature of things, the Torah says they bring the holy presence into that space and that time. That by coming together and committing to learning and growing they are bringing god directly into the world.

Since that first day at Aish HaTorah; Ben and I have done just that countless times. Most people who we meet, most people that come into our lives are transient, they come and they go, they play their role upon the stage of our lives and they leave just as quickly as they arrived, Shakespeare had it right when had Macbeth say: “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more” but a very, very small handful of people enter our lives and never leave, they inexplicably become tied to us and us to them. We develop bonds, which grow deep and can not be broken. These are the relationships that ultimately matter and they are the most precious thing in the world.

I feel very blessed to have found one of those friendships in my friend Benyamin he is a rare and special friend. And as he prepares to go off once again to that beautiful and mysterious land we call Israel, I want to give him a blessing to go in peace, to find satisfaction in the activities he chooses to engage in and to always remember he has a home where ever I am. Home is where your heart is and my heart goes with you my friend wherever you go. Shalom Alechem and Bizrat Hashem we will see each other again soon.