I just returned from Winnipeg, Canada, where I had the opportunity to spend a wonderful Shabbat with members of the Herzlia-Adas Yeshurun synagogue.   Rabbi Ari and Tikva Ellis have created a warm community atmosphere in the shul.  (For anyone thinking about Winnipeg as an option of a place to live, the rabbi can be reached at ravellis@gmail.com…)

When I went through security Sunday morning, I received a surprise early-summer bagel! For those of you not familiar with “bageling” – feel free to check out the “Bagel Theory – True Stories” page on this blog… It was 5 am, and the security guard met me as I lined up to put my carry-on through the X-Ray machine… He greeted me with a warm “Shalom Aleichem” and proceeded, uncharacteristically, in Hebrew, to ask me where I live, what I do for a living and the like.  I answered him in Hebrew, and asked him (his ID tag read, “Yoseph”) what HE’s doing here – an Israeli security guy at the James Richardson airport in Winnipeg?  It was a bit incongruous; a conversation like the one I had usually takes place in the EL-Al line at Ben Gurion or at JFK….. His reply, “It’s a job!”

My first summer bagel!