My Walking Partner

My Walking Partner MAZEL TOV! JFX finally has its own permanent home. Thank G-d, we were able to purchase the John Carroll Green Rd. Annex building as our new space! This week on Monday, I flew to Cincinnati for a bris. It was a wonderful trip. The flight was out of Burke Lakefront Airport on a small, comfortable jet, without any security line. We left first thing in the morning, and everything was enjoyable and convenient. There was a rental car waiting for me at the airport, and I had plenty of time before the bris for a study session at the Cincinnati community Kollel. The bris itself went well. The crowd was Jewish but largely unaffiliated, and I felt like I was in my element, doing my best to make the ceremony meaningful. I really enjoyed meeting and connecting with the people there. I spent the next few hours answering emails and attending an important zoom meeting before heading back to the private Cincinnati airport. It was a very productive day, and I felt good about myself. As instructed by the airline, I arrived at the airport at 4:30, as the gates to the plane were scheduled to close at 4:50, followed by takeoff. So, I pulled my rental car up to the Enterprise office, went to the front door, and found it locked with a sign directing customers to drop their keys into the nearby dropbox, which I promptly did. Only then did I realize that I was at the wrong location, still a mile away from the Ultimate Air terminal. (Apparently this was the old Enterprise location.) The problem was that my keys were locked in the box, no one was around, and I had no phone number to call for help. So in the 92° heat, wearing my formal attire and schlepping multiple bags and boxes, I started marching down what seemed like the never ending yellow brick road, all the way to the airline terminal, racing against the clock, wondering what I would do if the plane left without me. Thank G-d, the plane left a few minutes late, and I made the flight. The entire 20-minute experience should have been a very distressing one for me, and normally such a story would have put me into panic mode. But strangely, I actually felt a calming, almost divine feeling throughout the ordeal. I felt like Hashem was guiding me throughout the process, and all would be well. Strangely, I actually even enjoyed the entire experience. Looking back, I felt that G-d was teaching me a message: to appreciate the fact that He has my back, not to become arrogant about my successful day, but to stay grateful and humble for His divine blessings throughout my day, wherever I may roam. I also felt that the entire day was a metaphor for the past 10 months, as it relates to our purchase of the John Carroll annex building.Throughout the entire process, it felt like there was sort of an invisible Hand guiding us, especially the past few months. From the moment that we were told on a Thursday in March that someone else put a bid on the building and we had until Monday to either match their bid, or find a new place to rent by the end of the month, until yesterday when we finally were able to close on the property, everything in between felt almost surreal. We never planned or budgeted to purchase our own building, but clearly Hashem had other plans for us. At first we felt overwhelmed with the notion of raising millions of dollars, and the initial meetings were met with a sense of defeatism. Then, one of our members called me and said we need a “can-do” attitude. He offered a generous pledge and challenged a friend to match him. That’s how the campaign began. Thank G-d, we have already raised over $2 million in pledges and are hopeful and optimistic that we will raise all the needed funds to create the perfect space for our JFX community. We are excited to fill the building with vibrant Jewish learning, with Mussar and Mini Mussar classes, Tot Shabbats, Young Professionals events, and Jews of all ages loving and living Torah lessons and values. We are grateful to Hashem and to all those who believed in us and are helping us with us new endeavor and are excited for this historic opportunity for our community. See, every long road has an end, whether in Cincinnati, Cleveland or anywhere. God is always walking beside you, lighting your path, even if it's hard to see in the moment! Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Koval