An unexpected trip to El Dorado, AR

When we came back to Little Rock on Wednesday night, we were informed that the other two bochurim that were traveling around the state had suffered a car break down in El Dorado, AR. They were going to be getting the car fixed but had no money and no food. Of course I was volunteered to drive to El Dorado on Thursday morning and rescue them from their hotel. We left after 1:00 PM and went to the hotel, where the were thrilled to us... Actually thrilled to see the food, then we took them to the garage where the car was being worked on. The car was ready so we paid an unearthly amount and went on our way. We all visited a Jewish person in El Dorado before heading back to Little Rock. We got to little rock and stopped at Chabad for Mincha. Then we went home... I was sitting in the kitchen and one of the other bochurim come running in to the house... "Come quick, we need help pushing the car, it broke down again!!" No way... Yes, it really did break again, and now it is still dead... Who knows what Rabbi Ciment will do with it. Wow, what a day.

Photos...

Tuesday night dinner

Chevy Malibu... Not bad, and a pretty cheap rental

Sam Walton's first store, now the WalMart Museum

Wednesday night dinner

WalMart here we come...

Wednesday afternoon we went to Bentonville Arkansas, we had one appointment and we met with him at his office. Mr. Levine put on teffilin and bought a couple of books. We were asked to go see him by Rabbi Griesman, the new shliach to Northwest Arkansas that is moving in two weeks. After our appointment we drove around the city 'touring' a little. We saw headquarters of JB Hunt, Tyson, and of course WalMart. Across the street from WalMart's home office was a strip of office parks, in which every office were people that do business with WalMart. One of the suites there was called Yad Yosef, a little office center with Jewish books and kosher cold drinks in the fridge. It was setup by a group of sefardi Jewish vendors that travel top Bentonville a few times a month for business. There is sometimes a minyan there. We also saw the new Eitz Chayim building, a congregation that just opened and labels themselves, "not as affiliated as reform"... Whatever! From Bentonville we returned to Little Rock where the following day held interesting things for us...

Shaya puts Teffillin with Mark

The 'mirrored' outside door to Yad Yosef

One of the Rooms in Yad Yosef

The 'less than reform' temple

Fayetteville continued...

On Wednesday we made four more visits in Fayetteville. We started out at 10:00 AM when we met with Jacob Adler, a Philosophy professor at University of Arkansas as well as an ordained reconstructionist Rabbi. We met at the Hillel house that is also home to the local Temple Shalom (reform) as well as a Hebrew/Sunday school, and weekly parsha study for adults, led by Jacob Adler. We spent a half hour there - time shortened due to getting lost - and then we went back to our hotel. We collected everything and checked out and we returned to the home of the person that was on the long distance call and couldn't see us the day before. Didn't spend long there, as he was rushing out. Then we went to Dr. Boris Schein, a math professor at the university. He was not home but we met with his wife and spoke with her for a little while telling her about all the things that the new chabad center opening up in two weeks in Northwest Arkansas will provide. She was very excited and very thankful. From there we went to Dr. Daniel Levine, professor of Greek studies (language, culture, etc.) also at U of A. Dr. Levine put on teffilin and bought a book and was very excited to see us, although I think we offended his wife when we didn't shake her hand... Oh well. From there it was off to Bentonville, headquarters of WalMart...

Shaya and Jacob Adler in front of the Hillel House

Dr. Levine in Teffilin

The trip so far

We have gone almost 1500 miles so far...

Fayetteville, Huntsville and more

Our first visit in the morning was to an old Jewish woman that lived alone in a shabby house, and looked very lonely. She bought a few books and sent us on our way. Another gentleman we had an appointment with told us he was too busy to see us, after we already got to his front door. We will call him again tomorrow.

The old woman's home

Later in the evening we went to a countryside near Huntsville. One guy we met was a guy who is pretty religious, living in the country in a motor home on his parents front lawn. He keeps kosher, puts teffilin every day, has a Chevron me'az ul'tamid bumper sticker, speaks Hebrew and quotes Talmud word for word! Weird if I may say so! We spent some time with him accompanied by a non-Jewish amish fella who is very interested in our way of life and even sends money to Chabad in Little Rock, again - Weird!!

You don't see this combination everyday

Me and Yossi

Shaya is holding the pellet gun that Yossi use
d to scare away the neighbors dog)

This is the type of countryside that Yossi and Marvin (the non-Jew) live

Fort Smith

On Monday we traveled through Fort Smith with a stop in Clarksville. In Clarksville we visited an old man that was in a home with a broken leg. We prayed with him and spoke to him for a little while about different things. We didn't spend to long their before we moved on to Fort Smith. We met with Dennis in Fort Smith. Dennis was very interesting and very much into music, Shaya was thrilled about that. We spent more than three hours with him, we spoke about kosher, davening, teffilin, mezuzahs, Jewish history and much more. The History was interesting to him being a history teacher at the local high school. We spoke all sorts of history; world, Jewish, holocaust and family history. His family history was very interesting in that he just recently found out that his mother's mother's mother was actually Jewish, thus to his surprise making him Jewish as well. He showed us old documents he had received from his grandmother before she died which included an old kesubah from his great great grandparents. Shaya and Dennis jammed a little (we called it practice - nine days!! :) ) All in all this was a fun, educational experience for all.

Jacksonville

Today we went to Jacksonville, AR and we had a very successful trip. We visited two people. One, Lloyd Friedman, a real estate developer was very happy to see us, and bought many books. We spoke for a while, and we found out that he has four Harley Davidsons... WOW!..

Me with Lloyd

Then we went to see Garrick Feldman, a very nice gentleman, very into music, so he and Shaya got along real well. He runs/owns a newspaper, and gave us a tour of the newsroom, and pressroom. Was actually pretty cool. He gave us money, but did not want books, so we took it gladly, wished him well, and left. We got a bit lost on the way home, but boruch hashem not to lost, as we were able to find our way back to the newspaper place then our way to the highway. We will be in Little Rock for Shabbos again, with the same routine as last week: Mincha, two mile walk, dinner, sleep, two mile walk davening, one mile walk, waste the day , then maariv... Sounds very exciting! Good Shabbos

Shaya talks with Garrick about 'Blues'

The Pressroom

Hot Springs

Today we went to Hot Springs, and the Rabbi decided that there was no need to call anyone beforehand and that we should just go and visit people in their stores without calling. We did just that and we came to Lauray's Jewelers and asked for Mr. Flieschner. He was not there so we rode around town and made a few unanswered phone calls. We then went sightseeing around Hot Springs and then returned to Little Rock. Next time I think we should make phone calls before hand!!

View from the Bottom of the Watchtower

There is a spring in there somewhere

This isn't one of the famous springs

Shaya hard at work (playing a game!)

The man known simply as "The Good Doctor"

Benzion Deep in Prayer

Shaya finding the time to eat some 'real' food

Looking good, no?

The ride back to Little Rock

The ride home should have taken us about six hours from Meridian, but being that we were very hungry and tired it took a lot longer than that. We stopped for almost an hour to eat dinner, and we stopped for two hours to sleep at a rest stop just south of Memphis. We woke and continued our journey into Memphis and through Graceland at about 2:15 AM and finally arrived back in little rock at 4:58 AM... Wow, what a ride. Boruch Hashem the trip was successful, and we are looking forward to more successful journeys, to places like Jacksonville, Hot Springs, Fayetteville, Bentonville, and Fort Smith, all in Arkansas. Today (Wednesday) we caught up on sleep and food, and tomorrow we will be traveling to Hot Springs, about a one hour drive - we don't get to rent a car for that one.

This is what Mississippi looked like when we stopped for dinner at a rest stop

The Honda Accord we rented

This is our Dinner, was lot's of fun actually!

Some photos

Brooklyn in the middle of Meridian?

Shaya with "The Horse"

Shaya waits "patiently" in Dr. Katz's office.

Me with "The Horse"

Some building in Meridian

We met with two Jewish people in Mississippi. One is Dr. Howard Katz, we met him at his office, in the Baptist Medical Center. Dr. Katz put on Teffilin, and spoke with us for a few minutes, before he looked through our collection of books for sale. He did buy $52 worth of books, before he rushed out. On our way out we bumped into Dr. Katz's wife who was waiting for him at the entrance, we offered her the Spice and Spirit cookbook when she informed us that she already has it. We spoke for a few minutes and I found out that she knows some people I know, being that she works on the Jewish Film Festival. After we met with Dr. Katz and his wife we left for Meridian.

Dr. Katz in Teffilin

Dr. Katz's Place of Work

In Meridian we met with Josephine Hughes, and her housemate Joseph. Josephine is Jewish and Joseph is not. She keeps kosher to the best of her ability traveling to Birmingham, Alabama a few times a year for kosher meat and chicken. We spent about two hours in her home, talking and discussing Judaism, as well as different aspects of our lives, as well as hers. It was a very interesting experience. Joseph told us about his military life and how he was in the service for more than thirty years, and he's been retired almost 30 years... So he's been around for a while. Josephine told us about how her nephew in Israel sends her kosher food and wine. Josephine told us that she waits all year for the "summer rabbis" to come to her house. She bought almost one of every book we had, with the exception of about four, because she already had those. She also left us a nice donation, which will help us pay for the trip including the rental car, that we had to argue with Rabbi Ciment to get. That was our trip to Mississippi.

Joseph, Josephine, and myself (if you look closely you can notice the pictures of rabbi's behind us)