The Road Sage

New Orleans

Tuesday at the Maccabi Games in San Antonio was nothing short of, as we like to refer to it, a ‘bonanza’.  After the great time and success which we had in S.F. by the Games, we decided to become pseudo-groupies and drive the 1,486 miles to San Antonio. We were rewarded for our efforts. Throughout the day, teams walking to and from events all stopped by to say hi, take a wristband, put on Tefillin or take a box of Shabbat candles. It was great when a few teams through the day ran over after a win saying it was because they had all donned the Tefillin ( the team that lost did not come over which saved us some explaining). All in all it was a great success with 140 tefillin (20 of them first timers) and 50 pairs of Shabbat candles. One of the Roadsages had a brother who is a friend of ours as well fly in especially for the Games to help out.

Special thank you to the Chabad Shluchim in San Antonio Rabbi and Rebbetzin Bloch for their warm hospitality.

Next up, Dallas via Austin.

Tuesday, August 11

Here are some pictures from our 15 hour drive to San Antonio

Monday, August 10

After leaving the West Coast on Thursday we called the Deitsch family, Chabad shluchim in Chandler Arizona to see about staying for Shabbat. They promptly replied yes, they would love to have us. Joining us would be Nosson Deitsch and Eli Chitrik friends of the Roadsages. Friday night a large meal took place by the Deitsch residence in which we regaled the crowd with stories of our journey and l’chaims were offered along with well wishes by all attendees. The next day in Synagogue there was a double simcha! We had an aufruf, the traditional call-up to the Torah for a groom on the Shabbat preceding the wedding. As well we had a Bar Mitzva. The boy-now a man read from the Torah beautifully. During the Kiddush following services he recited the traditional discourse said by a Chabad Bar Mitzva off by heart. No easy feat.

A barbecue was put together after Shabbat which was enjoyed and appreciated by all. Sunday morning started the long drive to San Antonio for the Maccabi Games with a stop in Scottsdale along the way. There we visited with ‘Ken’ a Jewish pastor who graciously hosted us in his house for discussions on Theology, Philosophy, Jewish Mysticism and the like.

We wanted to give a big thank you to Rabbi and Mrs. Deitsch for their warm hospitality over Shabbat.

Friday, August 8

After leaving New York taking a counter-clockwise route around this great country we are currently on the return leg through the South. Internet connection the last few days has been spotty but now having got a signal here are some facts and images from the trip so far.
Tefillin: 200, Shabbat candles: 150, Good deeds total: pushing 600!
Miles: over 4,000, cups of coffee: 67, cans of Coca Cola: 165, states passed through: 19, speeding tickets, 0!

Fort Wayne, IN

Cincinnati, OH

Camping in Indiana

Replacing our broken GPS

Havdalla in Wisconsin Dells

Camping near Mt. Rushmore

Colorado

Monday, August 3

The Road Sage continued where it left off the night before, spreading the good to all the participants of the Maccabi games. We parked the Sage Coach in the middle of the University of San Francisco, which is the hub of the games and we met all the athletes as they went to and from their games. We managed to talk and do mitzvahs with hundreds of the athletes, coaches and spectators. Another amazing thing was that we were able to perform Bar Mitzvahs for over twenty boys. Here are some photos of the people we met.

Some of the Bar Mitzvahs we made, Mazal Tov!!!

On Monday we put Teffilin on with over 120 men, gave out over 50 sets of Shabbat candles to women and lots of charity was given too.

Keep following Mitzvah count: 536 Miles 3,700. Make sure to join our Facebook group and follow us on twitter @roadsage.

The opening ceremony of the Maccabi games was an amazing event. It was a sight to see all the Jewish athletes from all

corners of the globe coming together in a display of Jewish unity and pride in the sporting arena. Upon the conclusion of the ceremony we brought the “Sage Coach” to the front of the building for all to see as they exited the event. We handed out wrist bands to everyone we saw. Everyone (including the security) soon became involved with either putting some coins in the charity box, taking some Shabbat candles for Friday night or joining in a lively dance to the music playing from the “Sage Coach”.

Catching some last minute Teffillin before dark

Sunday, August 2

We headed out to San Jose for the Jewish heritage day with the San Jose Giants (of the San Francisco Giants farm system). As soon as we got there we got the good deeds going.

From the kosher pastrami sandwiches to the blowing of the Shofar by the Rally Rabbi (Rabbi Langer) it was a great event and wonderful showing of the Jewish community there.

We had a great time, spread the goodness and off the Maccabi Games opening ceremony.

Sunday, August 2nd

We arrived at the Langers, the local Shluchim in S. Francisco, pretty close to shabbos. We met the other guests with whom we’d be spending the weekend and settled down in the Chabad House. This was to be a little bit of an extended stay compared to the average time of twelve hours which we dare not exceed in one place.

The reason for the extended stay is the JCC Maccabi Games, in which many Jewish teens from all over the world compete for  gold. This year it was in S. Francisco.

But first Shabbos. Friday night was beautiful, with great food and great camaraderie. We told over a couple of stories from the road, sang a few traditional Jewish songs, spoke about many different topics ranging anywhere from bathrooms to bobble-heads to Jerusalem; all in all a wonderful time.

Shabbat afternoon after cholent, we went for a stroll in Golden Gate Park. The air was brisk with a chilly wind blowing but that didn’t stop us – we were out looking for people.

We met with one man who ran over and told us of his first encounter with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. What impressed him most was that after all he’d heard of the Rebbe preaching a message of goodness , the very first thing he witnessed was the Rebbe giving a young child a coin to give to charity. He said that the scene is still ingrained in his mind 30 years later!