Tu B'Shevat Shabbat - Where is your

Uptown...

* Dates of Tu B'Shvat (& Young Adults) Shabbaton: This Tu B'shvat Shabbos will be jammed packed as part of the special "One Shabbat, One World" project. Friday candlelighting at 5:41 pm. 6:30pm user-friendly services for all ages followed by young adults (professionals, students, singles and couples) Shabbat dinner with wide array of Israeli (DATES, figs and more), new and kabbalistic fruit among the always great food and company. tantalize your palliate and soul. RSVP now!!!

* Shabbat services @ 10am followed by buffet lunch for all well-deserved service-survivors with more fruit and the best cholent this side of the Mississippi!

* Melava Malka: This special Shabbos will culminate with a joint Melava Malka of the six local participating Chabad locations with scholar-in-residence Rabbi Eli Silberstein of Ithaca, NY. Topic: Kabbalah of Happiness. $15 a person; RSVP.

* Mommy & Me: Chanie will be having her winter Mommy & Me session with the budding Einsteins and Michelangelos having their first Jewish experience through art and song. Click here for more info and share the light - let moms know!!!

* Parsha Class: It aint too late to join the Birth series - a weekly Exodus parsha journey; mirrored image of the birth of every soul and applied to our daily lives. Timeless lessons in a one hour timed study! Join us Tuesdays. lunch 12-1:15 and Thursdays 8-9.

* Kabbalah of Character: There is also the JLI ongoing class: Kabbalah of Character with Rabbi Moishe Traxler on Tuesday evenings. More at myjli.com

* Birthright Recruiting - Registration opens soon No longer eligible for a free Israel trip through Birthright Israel? Well, you can still get in on the excitement. Apply to be a Mayanot Birthright recruiter, sign up your friends for the trip, and you can find yourself staffing this summer's trip. Age eligibility requirements have just been lowered from 21 to 18. Contact me for more details.
Of course, if you are eligible, this is an opportunity you'd have to be crazy to miss. 10 days in Israel doing everything you could possibly imagine. Jeeping in the Desert, white water rafting, floating in the Dead Sea, swimming in the Mediterranean, riding camels or donkeys, sleeping in a Bedouin tent, experiencing the awe of Jerusalem and the Western Wall, and so much more. And all for free. www.mayanotisrael.com for info and to pre-register. Registration opens Feb. 15, and is expected to close in less than three weeks.

* Spring Break: Argentina. This Spring, join students from all over the country for an exciting and meaningful alternative spring break program. Help a community in need and explore a region you've never seen. See site for more!
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In other news...

* Rivkie celebrated her second birthday last week with a quaint family celebration with a choice of chocolate or color-sprinkled cupcakes and lessons how to - when prompted - hold down the pinky and ring fingers [look up finger names] to indicate age two (and for the peace sign for her teen :) years...) I was tempted to teach her the longhorn-two, but in respect to you aggies (yes, you: a.s., a.s, b.e., m.k., s.f.e., r.b. and others ) I kept the "peace". :).

* NYC Trip: I joined thousands at the ohel in commemoration of "Yud Shevat" and rejuiced as we forge ahead through the uncommonly bristling cold Houston winter. Every trip to NYC comes with a price, a prize object to be brought back to the third largest city that does not have what the big apple's got (or for the same price).... The looks on the airline personnel's faces are golden when I answer to their harmless, procedural question of, "what is in the box, sir?" I say quite naturally "gefilte fish". She stops tagging for a moment and looks up at me and I get this blank stare, "fish?" "yep, 30 frozen fish" "hmm interesting", and she carries on with her business and sends me off with the box to no. 8 to make the sure "gefilte" does not equate packed with explosives (that maybe was the case when our grandmas made it the real way in the old country)... The uniformed dude at monstrous no. 8 repeats the same (to me humorous) dialogue, "fish, huh?" - always a fun part of my trip to the city that never sleeps.

* MATISYAHU: A girl seated in A of my row, headed home from a three month trip in west Africa to learn Dakar and Ghadie dance from the top teachers, surviving riots, sporting waste-length dreadlocks, and writing a diary in a simple spiral notebook, shares her interests in Matisyahu and her hooked experience at a club concert in Santa Fe, where she is from. Interesting to hear how a soul was touched by his music.

* Seeking guests: Chanie has got her turn too - for she is headed to the International Conference of Shluchos next week. I'll be home with three of the kiddos and making shabbos too! Looking for some guests to join me so Chanie beleives me that I really do know how to make good competitive chicken...

Construction has begun in earnest with tractors, bobcats, cranes and jackhammers. The greatest challenge, keeping our vessel for G-dliness functioning throughout the construction stage of our new one.

* Groundbreaking ceremony with Mayor, Israeli Consul General, and the whole line up, this Sunday at noon.

* My 8 year old niece Bat-Sheva Lazaroff of the west coast - LA, CA - (my Rabbi/law-student brother Leible's daughter) came to visit for her winter break and spent some great time getting to know her cousins in the real west.

Laugh, comment or shout at any of my ramblings. Love to hear your thoughts, feedback and your own experiences. I will be posting (this and my past) stuff at www.chabadtexas.org/blog - you can comment there too.

See you real soon!