Avi Yemini Quotes

I’m the tenth of 17 children born to my mother within 20 years.

They crave attention as much as I do.

My Russian-Polish grandfather arrived in Sydney, where he met my Polish grandmother in 1937, fleeing the Nazis

Dad was a poster child for the generation that came of age in the 1960s. By his own admission, he “was totally materialistic, obsessed with sex, drugs

The hard-drinking, hard-partying Stephen Waks changed his name to Zephaniah

But it wasn’t enough for dad to join Sydney’s Chabad Hasidic community. He booked a flight and headed to the group’s headquarters in New York, where he found more profound theology and, more importantly, he also found my mother.

A known Shadchan (religious matchmaker) in Crown Height’s bustling Chabad community set up Zephaniah and Chaya.

The Rebbe prophesied during their meeting that Hashem (God) would bless them with many children.

according to Halacha (Jewish law)

one morning of every year, I’d arrive at school and announce that my mother had a baby. To which my class would respond, “mazal tov, another one?!

I spent the night in the hospital, where I was told that the entire school took a lesson off to pray for me in Shul (Synagogue).

Avrohom Sholom Waks, are you awake?

Mum and dad bought a house in St Kilda East opposite our Jewish school and Synagogue.

On Jewish holidays, we would ask them to perform the relevant Jewish customs for that holiday. If they weren’t Jewish, we would hand them the Seven Laws of Noah, which, according to Jews, are the only laws gentiles need to keep: Don’t worship idols. Don’t curse God. Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery or sexual immorality.

Sadly, Honey, the goat didn’t last. To this day, no-one in our family knows exactly how Honey met her demise, though I suspect the poor animal may just have been overwhelmed by the intensity of the large and ever-growing Waks family.

I used my four-pen device to write one page and, with ultimate chutzpah, got the librarian to help me photocopy it enough times. Still warm from the printer, I handed my lines to the PE teacher. To my absolute shock, he accepted them.

So, it wasn’t exactly a surprise to anybody, least of all me, when in year Eight, I was expelled from the Orthodox Jewish School I had attended all my childhood.

Then I was off to the piercing parlour for a stud in my left earlobe.

The rosh yeshiva (school principal)

On the train, I met a group of Rabbis from our same Chabad community, so I knew how to talk to them. Once I told them my story, they invited me to come and be a guest at their Chabad House, a Synagogue they used for their outreach work. I thought that was a better option than facing my disappointed family. So I went with them.

my big brother Yanki, who was serving as a soldier in the Israeli Army at the time.