I'm a Travelin' Man
Traveling is a considerable part of my job as National Director of NCSY. Since NCSY spans across all of North America I could be in any given city any day of the week. Last week I found myself in Los Angeles for 11 hours. I flew out on Continental’s 7am flight to LA which landed at 10:30 am. By 9:30pm that night I was back on a plane landing in NJ at 6am. This provided me with a one hour window to get to Marc Goldman’s son’s Bris at 7am on the West Side of Manhattan. As a side note, I must mention that Marc Goldman is certainly one of the Lamed Vav Tzadikim that walk this earth. Marc started an internet dating service called SAWYOUATSINAI.COM. The dating site works through shadchanim so that the process is not awkward for either party involved. Marc is responsible for hundreds of shidduchim. I am proud to say that my wife, Rachel, is now a shadchan for them.
Anyway.... back to the story.
During my 11 hours in LA I stumbled into the LA NCSY office where I printed out my return boarding pass from the Continental web site. The secretary in the office glanced at my ticket and said, “Wow, you must have planned your trip really well because you are on the same flight tonight as our JSU trip”. Once again a brief side note-NCSY started sending Jewish public school students to NY for an outstanding Presidents Weekend trip 5 years ago. We started with 40 participants and the program has now mushroomed to include over 500 teens!!!!!!!!
When I learned that I was going to be sharing MY plane with 100 loud teenagers I couldn’t believe it. I was exhausted and worried that I would be a basket case the next day. That night I shlepped myself onto the plane dreading the flight. I was seated in row 15 and all the NCSYers were seated in rows 19 and above. Because of my platinum card I was the first to board the plane and then a magical thing happened.
One by one the teens started to walk by me. They were the sweetest group of kids you had ever seen. I found myself becoming very emotional when I realized that these teenage tzadikim were going to have the most spiritual shabbos of their lives. I was incredibly proud to be a part of an organization that is constantly looking out for Hashem’s children. I felt very guilty for ever thinking badly about this flight. I silently asked G-d for forgiveness. I know that he forgave me because just then he sent an angel disguised as a Continental stewardess over to hand me an upgrade to first class. With my new seat I was able to sleep all the way back to NJ..... with a big smile on my face.
I must not be davening hard enough - first class upgrades don’t happen to me that often…
Posted by Micha Greenland on 03/09 at 06:46 PMLet me know when you are in Chicago!
Posted by Heidi on 03/30 at 10:03 PMWhen are you ocming to Phoenix?
DanaPosted by Dana Schechter on 04/04 at 06:44 PM
Next entry: The Unknown Impact of a NCSY Shabbaton
Previous entry: What does it mean to be a Jew?