LeChaim

I had just finished a class at Yeshiva (Jewish learning center) looking into the deeper meaning of the Shema (A Jewish Prayer), when 2 guys were discussing what they might do over the next few hours we had before dinner. I casually suggested that I was going to visit Yaakov (Jacob), a friend who is very ill and was staying in a nearby hospital, and the others were eager to accompany me. So, two yeshiva guys and Raphael (my violin) joined me for the journey to visit my sick friend.

When we arrived at the hospital we sang and danced for some time, and recited the Me-sheh-bay-rach (Prayer of Healing for the sick), then made our way back to the Old City.

When I reached Zion Gate, I made my way directly to the Western Wall to say a prayer for Yaakov. Raphael came along too, and we played a somber melody called Oseh Shalom. At the end of this tune, a woman approached me and began speaking to me in Hebrew. I didn't understand most of what she had said, but I did get the basic idea that she wanted me to play violin for school children at some event. So I went.

I followed the woman and her 3 children into their car, and we set out on the roads of the winding hills of Jerusalem. On the way, I leraned that today was the 12th day of the month of Tamuz on the Hebrew calendar. The woman explained that the 12th of Tamuz (This year, July 18/19) is a day revered by some as a day of celebration. A day of recollection to the freedom of a Chabbad (Branch of Hassidic Judaism - pronounced "Hah-ba-d") Rebbe (The head-Rabbi of the time) from a Russian prison.

We arrived at our destination, and I found myself in a Chabbad house (synagogue / place of meeting) of one of the neighboring areas of Jerusalem where most people at the event spoke only Hebrew. The first person that I had a conversation with in English hapened to have a direct connection with Yaakov.

We said a Lechaim (raising our glasses in toast, usually with alcohol - literally meaning "To Life!") and Refuah Shlema (complete healing) for Yaakov on the anniversay of the Rebbe's release from prison.