Mission Impossible: tefillin, lunch, sefarim, shopping
I had a clear mission in mind. After today’s Talmud class, I would go purchase a new set of tefillin and have my old set checked. Both the batim (black boxes) and the ktav (parchment writing) inside should be checked every few years. I had the name and address of a reputable sofer (Torah, mezuzzah, and tefillin scribe): Rabbi Moshe Flugenbaum of HaSofer (see his website). I would visit the institute for the publication of the writings of Rabbi Uziel to purchase a set of Mishpatei Uziel, his collected responsa (one of the first Sephardic Chief Rabbis in Israel). I would then go to Kikar Shabbat, the street junction that divides the ultra-orthodox neighborhoods of Ge’ulah and Me’ah She’arim, to purchase a rare three CD set of Moditz Hasidic Niggunim and whatever other musical treasures and traditional texts I discovered. Then I would pick up a birthday card and small gift for Noah for tomorrow. Then I would swing back through the Ben Yehuda shopping area to get some tourist stuff before getting back to the yeshiva for my 4 PM seminar on Hasidism. Lunch would happen somewhere in there as well.
It was impossible. Elizabeth and the boys joined me and we got to HaSofer, lunch at a classic Israeli hummus joint called Pinati, and the shopping on Ben Yehuda. I have to go back tomorrow to pick up the tefillin so maybe I’ll get the CDs then. The hummus basar (hummus with seasoned ground beef) and fiery Yemenite harif sauce at pinati were so good that all accounts consider this a “Mission Accomplished.”
