My Shabbos with the Tzig - By Mordechai Lightstone

Mottel from Letters of Thought spent Shabbos Parshas Chukas Balak in New Hempstead (Greater Monsey, New York) with his wife at the Tzig house. Here's his short report.

I've known Hirshel Tzig for nearly four years, yet never seen him face to face . . . I first found the Circus Tent when some of my pictures from Kaunas, Lithuania (Kovno - קאוונא - HT) ended up on MentalBlog (ע"ה) . . . then used as a graphic by Der Tzig. He's been a valued blogging companion ever since. Though Hirshel and I have tried to meet up - by the Ohel, in 770 or by Chassidsher Farbrengen'ish - we were never able to work things out. So, the years and comments went by, and in my mind Hirshel remained a be-horned goat or a bearded face from a Vishniac painting. Then, last week, my wife and I were offered a ride to Monsey. (Mottel asked if he could come, I checked with the wife and we both agreed it would be a great idea!) Sending the Tzig an email, we worked out the details of our meeting for a shabbos together in his home. (In the end the poor guy, had to catch the bus in Williamsburg since the ride didn't materialize. - HT) Bottle of Laphroaig in hand, (That stuff could kill you -- HT) we waited along Route 306 for our dear host to reveal himself. (He means come pick them up. I took three kids with me and we drove down to Rte. 306 and Viola Rd.- HT) I was somewhat taken aback when we ultimately met. True his stature was different then I had imagined, perhaps his hair a bit whiter, but in truth it was his normalcy that surprised me. I feel very strongly that Bloggers are normal people - perhaps a little too passionate or opinionated - overall we tend to mesh very well with the general population. Yet while I didn't expect Tzig to have horns like a real goat I did almost expect him to be very much the firebrand and maverick that we know him as.

Instead I found a chassidisher youngerman, with zisse chassidisher kinderlach, and overall a very fine and 'normal' life. (Mottel is so holy he didn't even notice that I have a wife too! - HT) After speaking to him, I could tell that he was in the 'know' about all the interesting tidbits, trivia politics and history that make up the discussions here . . . but at most he seemed like the kind of guy who would comment on the Circus Tent and then get into a chassidishe dvarim b'teilim session about it in the mikva or by the kiddush after davening. (Me being the anav, I made sure to hide my vast knowledge in Nigleh and Chassidus from Mottel... - HT) He did not seem like the Anti-Tzemach himself. We spoke briefly about blogging - I gave him a few pointers (such as using scribefire to write up posts, and what Twitter could be used for) - and he showed me some of the vile junk he must filter out of the comments, but over all we spent the Yom Tov of 12-13 Tammuz singing geshmaker niggunim and speaking over divrei yemei chassidus.

Hirshel - stay strong in all things, and may we give the Rebbe nachas in what we do - and farbreng again in the near future.