Day 2, 8:30 AM: Recap of Lizhensk

After spending pretty much the whole day travelling, we arrived in Lizhensk at a little after 11 PM. We davened Maariv together in the shul before heading off up the hill to the tzion of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk.


If I had to describe what the scene looked like in as few words as possible, I would use just one: Meron. The scene was strongly reminiscent of Meron on Lag Ba'omer, albeit on a much smaller scale. At the top of the hill is the Ohel, with the path leading up to it lined with people collecting tzedaka for various causes, distributing candles, selling souvenir coins blessed by the venerable His-Name-Escapes-Me-At-The-Moment Rebbe, etc. The Ohel itself is so packed with people that I could not honestly testify in a court of law that my feet were touching the ground the entire time as I made (read: squeezed) my way to the kever itself. It's a sight to behold: people from all walks of life, all gathering at the tzion of the holy Rebbe on the day of his yahrtzeit to pour out their hearts to our Father in Heaven, ad beg for a yeshuah in the merit of this great tzaddik.

At the bottom of the hill, once again similar to Meron, lots of evidence is visible that the Lizhensk Hachnassas Orchim organization is hard at work. From providing for the community the simple service of marking off the area until which kohanim are allowed to go, to providing buffet-style meals to thousands of people free of charge 24 hours a day, these people are amazing. The also distribute candles, have a crew of goyim keeping the place clean at all times - they even have a cellphone charging gemach.

Really, I kid you not. Near the "buffet", they have a bank of like two dozen different cellphone chargers plugged into two power strips taped back-to-back, with plug tips for almost every cellphone around. You just find the one that matches your phone and plug in, and you're ready to juice up.

Anyway, after Maariv, we were presented with a bit of a problem. The original plan was to leave Lizhensk at 3 AM for Lublin and sleep on the bus. However, these Eastern Europeans have some kind of irritating law (like most of their laws) that every bus must lay over for 9 hours at night. Even if you have a brand new driver, it doesn't help - to put things in lomdishe terms, "the issur is chal on the cheftza", meaning that the bus itself must "rest". If you can imagine.

So as a result, we would have no transportation until 8 AM the next morning, leaving us with a whole lot of hours to fill, with not much to do besides davening. And daven we did. We davened, we danced, some of us fell asleep in various hallways and corners of various rooms throughout the complex - eventually, morning came, and we all davened Shachris together at vasikin.

After Shachris, the Rosh Yeshiva went with a bunch of guys to go daven at the tzion again one last time, this time as a minyan. We then ate breakfast at the Hachnassas Orchim's dining room, and packed up lunches using the supplies they provided us with. We then did one last rekidah, and headed back to the bus, shortly after 8 AM.

Next stop: Lublin.