Ushpizin at the Muqata

It's that time again... when Jameel leaves the Muqata scarily unattended and allows numerous J-bloggers from all over take it over. As happened last year, the guest posts are spectacular, as everyone seems to write even better than normal while writing for other people's blogs... and Jameel picked some good ones to begin with. My favorites so far: Scraps' Where do you call "home"? and Akiva's Intimidation. Read those, but take time and enjoy the Muqata while Jameel's gone all this week and part of next week as well. Excerpts:

Scraps:

So imagine my surprise and consternation when I was on the bus with a friend at the end of the summer and overheard her conversation on the phone with someone else. "I had a great time here," she said, "but now I'm ready to go home." What?! I thought. What do you mean, "you're ready to go home"?! This IS home! Of course, thank G-d I had the tact to keep my mouth shut, but it got me thinking. Why was it that I knew that Israel was home, but she just thought of it as a nice place to visit? What differences were there between us that would lead to our disparate lines of thought?

And then it occurred to me.

Akiva:

The 'policeman' is beginning to lose control of his grip, screams at him "you're not going anywhere!" and reaches over with his other hand to pull his steel billy club.

My friend calmly, with his other hand, pulls back his long black coat. You'll remember I mentioned he lived not to far from Jameel, there's a large firearm on his side (perfectly legal and licensed). He looks at the 'policeman' and says, "achi (my brother), are you ready to meet at the beis din lamala (the heavenly court), are you clean?"

Enjoy the guests... Jameel, Mazel Tov!