My apologies to Reb Peretz Chein - some 7 years in the making...

I'm not sure Shliach Reb Peretz Chein even remembers; but I know other long-time readers do. I know because one several of you brought it to my attention. Then we criticized him for running a marathon in his shlichus town, something he did to ostensibly show his college students that he too cares about his personal well being. Then he realized that if running a marathon constitutes him breaking his own personal barriers - those that can and should be broken, not those that shouldn't - then imagine what finishing shas would do for him! So four years he set out to do just that, and finished it on the occasion of his son Mendel's Bar Mitzvah. And to top it all off, he made the siyum on an old (Slavitter?) Shas that his zeide brought with him from Russia some 40 years ago. So if we're "brave" enough to criticize him we can surely find the time to congratulate him on the momentous occasions of the siyum haShas and the son's Bar Mitzvah. Retroactively we can also say that his intentions back in '07 were pure and just.

 Mazel Tov!

is this a good seat?

I don't mean to brag, I'm just asking. With the rain and all...

My Tempest in a Teacup for today

Yeshiva World has a gallery of photos of the Australian Siyum haShas that took place today. Or was it tomorrow? I'm confused. Is it today in Australia now or tomorrow? so was this yesterday or today? In any case they had some guy named Danny Weiss take pictures for them and send them in, which they then posted on their site. It so happens that our man in Melbourne also sent me a picture of a Rov in Melbourne speaking at the same event. That Rov is a HaRav Reb Tzvi Telsner, dayan of the Lubavitcher Kehillah in Melbourne, and let me tell you, זיי האבען זיך נישט וואס צו שעמען from the other Kehillos there, שכבודם במקומם מונח. So after seeing that YWN had a gallery of their own I was curious to see if RZHT was also pictured there, or did I have an exclusive picture here? Lo and behold! The picture wasn't there. You figure that in small out-of-town places like Melbourne there would be some sort of achdus, but look at some of the faces here, the discomfort, the unease when Rabbi Telsner speaks; poor guys... SO why is it that davka his picture didn't make it to the official gallery? Was it the photographer who never bothered with Rabbi Telsner? did he take it and not send it in? did he send it in and it was rejected by YWN?

So, we're not part of כלל ישראל because among other things we don't attend events such as these, but when we do we don't get the coverage because we're not part of klal yisroel because we don't attend...