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Anyone who attended Camp Torah Vodaas or Camp Dora Golding when Rabbi Yitzy Erps was the night activity director will likely never forget how he announced the night activity. During supper each weeknight of camp, Rabbi Erps’ voice would boom over the dining room microphone with the longest “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand” you ever heard. At times, he would go for a minute or longer. It was his signature introduction. When he finally finished his elongated “And,” he would continue, “for tonight’s exciting night activity, we bring you…”

For some people, March 14 is an exciting day because 3-14 is pi day. Personally, I’ve never been much of a numbers guy. You can ask my mother or any of my teachers in school.

During the last few days, I’ve been thinking about some of the wonderful things in my life that I take for granted:

This week, I brought an invitation to my father-in-law for our daughter Aviva’s wedding in a few weeks. It was quite an emotionally draining experience. The wind was howling as I stood in front of his kever in Mount Sinai Cemetery on 7^th Street in Lakewood, New Jersey, and placed the invitation under some rocks. It was the day before we marked my father-in-law’s third yahrzeit, on the 18^th of Adar. I think there is a certain beauty to the fact that his yahrzeit is “chai Adar,” literally the life of Adar.

One of the beloved aspects of Purim for children is the universal custom to bang and make a ruckus when the name of Haman is mentioned. Normally, in shul we are bidden to act with utmost discipline and decorum, especially when the Torah is being read from.

So, there was my car, minding its own business, parked on the side of the road just up the block from the yeshivah. It was the morning of Taanis Esther, and it would be a busy afternoon for me, before Purim began. I got out of the car to enter the yeshivah building. My son Avi was still sitting in the car, when he heard a bump.