Wait for the Day     

Shabbos is the only commandment in which preparation is part of the mitzvah, so what better way than to start on Thursday – wait, why not even Sunday or Monday?

When a group of bochurim began gathering with their rebbi in Far Rockaway on Thursday nights to celebrate Shabbos, they never dreamed that one day they’d be on the road all week spreading the message

The drive from Cincinnati to Columbus, Ohio is about an hour and a half. The story soon to unfold would prove that distance to be child’s play.

My interactions with Rabbi Mordechai Yehudah Groner, rosh yeshivah of Ateres Shimon in Far Rockaway, have been something like a game of cat-and-mouse. For several months he’s been asking me to join his upcoming Hachana L’Shabbos journey — an initiative where he and a group of some 40 talmidim and fellow rebbeim travel cross-country and celebrate Shabbos each night of the week in a different community.

But unlike him, I guess I’m really not a traveler. “Come to Cincinnati,” I told him. “I’m happy to cover the event if you’re local.”

Cincinnati wasn’t on his agenda, but Columbus was. I capitulated, figuring if he could drive from New York to Orlando, then I could make the trek across the I-71 North.