Dear Readers,
I hereby declare that game manufacturers, camp counselors and
quiz coordinators are free to use this material as they see
fit. There's no copyright on Geula!
Grammar rules may be willingly suspended when playing these
games (but not one's credibility, because, anyway, it's all
true, true, true). Tell parallel structure to meet you as you
cross Kikar HaShabbos diagonally.
I. MILYON (MILON) MI YODAI
How many sentences, phrases or words can you suggest which
aptly describe Geula?
Following are some samples. Can you add any ideas? [Ed. I
did...]
A - mazing / Always there
B - reathtaking / Bus Number 10 stops there. What a Boon!
C - heery / Chometz-free on Pesach / Cozy / [Cabs, a fought-
over Commodity]
D - ear, be careful crossing the street
E - xciting
F - un / Frum
G - reat and Gevaldig and Geshmak
H - eimish / Historical / Humorous
I - nspiring
J - ewish, of course
K - einayne hora (also for B - li ayin hora)
L - eibedik / [Laissez faire]
M - eaningful / Mamma Loshon [whatever yours is: English,
Yiddish, Russian]
N - ot for sale
O - y! It's hot! How about some natural fruit juice?
P - erennial [also Pizza]
Q - uintessential / Quixotic
R - uchniyusdik [back to G?]
S - pecial / Super
T - imeless
V - endorful / Ven iz de next minyan at Zichron
Moishe?
W - onderful
X - otic
Y - es, I love it. Y - ou too!
Z - ei-er, zei-er gut!
II. MIX AND MATCH
What's Taking Place in Geula at These Times?
5 a.m. / 6 a.m. / 7:30 a.m. / 9 a.m. / 9:30 a.m. / 1 p.m. /
Mincha time / 8;30 p.m/ 10 p.m. / 11 p.m.
* Men with gemoras under their arms rushing out of
side streets and heading towards their homes.
* Men with taleisim on their heads on the way to
vosikin minyonim.
* Girls in school uniforms waiting at crowded bus stops.
* Chairs in felafel shops being placed on tables in
anticipation of the `big sponja'
* The streets filling with shoppers
* A small shtibel near the Mifal Hapyis lottery booth
filling with men.
* Droves of avreichim heading to their various
kollelim.
* Children buying bread and milk at the grocer.
* Neatly dressed girls holding the hands of neatly dressed
brothers.
* Men rushing to daf hayomi or other
shiurim.
* The streets congested with shoppers.
III. LOST IN GEULA
You're a tourist and want to visit your Aunt Frummi in Geula
but can't find Rechov Malachi. What should you do?
* Buttonhole someone in Hebrew/Yiddish/English for help? *
Call the police? * Open up a Tanach, turn to Trei
Ossor and proceed according to the order of the
Nevi'im? (Answer 3 works best)
IV. TRY THIS FOR MAZEL
Come to Geula on a Friday with a bag of coins and begin
distributing it to the alms solicitors in the street. Jot
down the various blessings they shower on you: Lots of
nachas / May you live to 120 / Todah, Geveret /
Be'emet todah / Noch a bissel / Compare them.
V. DO YOU REMEMBER? *
* When you could cross the street without maneuvers?
* Mrs. Tobolsky's galanteria, and the wonderful
mussar books she sold, written by her son [Ed. Sure
do. Tikkun Hamiddos in six volumes, still extremely
popular. Also, the first store to sell plastic baby bottles
(not glass) and pacifiers, ten for a lira. Also, the cheapest
kippot in town. In fact, my active seven-year-old was still
addicted to pacifiers, at home, and kept on losing them, so I
would send him to buy a new stock himself!] Remember the tall
ladder she kept to get to the things on high shelves? And her
uncanny memory for where her million items were stored?
* The store on Malchei Yisroel corner Rechov Hayeshiva where
a sweet, elderly lady sold delicious pistachio and strawberry
ice cream in American style cones [before you could get them
anywhere else]?
* The Lifshitz brothers' immaculate fish store, where
lebedig [live- ly] fish were whammed on their heads?
(How that store remained immaculate, I don't know. But it
did!) [Another fish story...]
* When it cost 13 agorot to go by bus from Geula `ha-
ira' -- to town and 15 agorot [these are lira-agorot, not
shekel-agorot!] to ride to the end of the line?
* When Rechov Yaffo was `ha'ira'. Today, Geula is,
according to all opinions, `ha-ira'.
[* Ed. Remember B.P.E. -- Before Pizza Era, when felafel was
the national fast-food?]
[If you do, then you're really an old-timer, and could
probably remind us of another dozen B.P.E. trivia facts, as
well. Nu? Our FAX is open all the time: 02-538-7998.
Waiting...]
VI. WHO'S VENDING VAT VEN?
1. How many types of Geula vendors can you list?
2. When do they vend their wares? [Say three times rapidly in
succession.]
[VII. SIGHTS, SOUNDS, SMELLS
List five perennials and five annuals of each.]
FINITO? FINIS? THE END? CELA? GAMARNU?
Not by a long shot. How about sending in your own
memorabilia.
When standing in a very long line in the Geula book shop to
buy your daughter a used dikduk textbook, what refrain
passes through your mind?
Geula sheli / Geula shelach / Geula shelachem / Geula shel K-
o-o-olam!
[May we merit a Geula Sheleima, a teeming marketplace for
real Olim Leregel worldwide to buy their needs, yet not to
feel squashed!]
Readers: brackets are your incorrigible editor's notes. I
just couldn't help myself. I antedate the pseudonymed writer
with rights to Geula by 2-3 years! And after all, who doesn't
wax enthusiastic over Geula! Why, the name alone conjures up
so much! So please, forgive.
