Making the Effort

We do our best to attend smachot (celebrations). 

Years ago, after attending a friend's funeral, we realized that if we drop everything to attend something so sad, then it is just as important, if not more so, to drop everything in order to attend celebrations.

From that point on, we really made it a priority to attend smachot whenever possible.

That said, over the past few years, we have missed several happy occasions, primarily britot (marking the birth of a son), due to the early hour of the celebration combined with the event being held some distance from our home.

Well, this morning, Moshe's first cousin, RH, celebrated the birth of his first son!  Moshe and I agreed that we would make every effort to attend the brit, despite the distance and the early hour. 

When we arrived, we really felt that the "new" parents appreciated that we made the effort to attend.

Due to heavy traffic, the trip took much longer than we expected and we arrived a bit late. The family made us feel so welcome and appreciated, that we really we felt it was worth the effort!

The simcha itself was very emotional and moving.

Moshe's cousin and his wife already had four wonderful, healthy daughters.  Now, they gave birth to their second set of twins: their fifth daughter and their first son!

The father's father (moshe's uncle) passed away many years ago, when Moshe's cousin was just a little boy, only four years old.  Now, Moshe's cousin could name his new son after his father, and his son's grandfather.  Everyone had tears in their eyes, when Moshe's cousin spoke about passing on his father's legacy to his newborn son.

We all felt the absense of Moshe's aunt, the "new" grandmother, who could not be at the brit because a different granddaughter (the "new" father's niece) is getting married tomorrow in the US!

Thank God for so many simchas!

The brit was such a meaningful experience.  I really appreciate the time we spent with Moshe's cousins; they are all so special.  I really feel blessed to have "inherited" such a warm and caring family.

I am so glad we were able to share in this simcha!


Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA

Bar/Bat Mitvah Season

Last Thursday.

Yesterday (Monday).

Today (Tuesday).

And this Thursday.

Thank God, there are a LOT of smachot!!

Keyn Yirbu!! (Let there be more!)



Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA

Smachot (Joyous Occasions)

Have I mentioned how much I love Moshe's family?

When I got married, we invited every single relative that I knew I had in Israel. My father's mother's cousin and his wife. Their two children and their spouses. And the children's 3 children, 6 in all. The total: 12 people.

I come from a very small family. Even my extended family is small.

Not Moshe's.

From Moshe's side, we invited only the "top" generation. We invited his mother's and father's siblings and cousins (and their spouses, of course). No kids and no grandkids. The total: 60 people.

Well, even if you divide that by two, you have 30 matriarchs and patriarchs.

Let's say that half of them are not close enough to include us in all of their smachot.

That still leaves about 15 families. At least 10 of those families have close to 10 children, and, in the older families, each of their children have plenty of children of their own....

So, thank God, we have plenty of relatives, and plenty smachot.

Each simcha is an occasion to catch up with family members, and to be updated about family news.

It has taken me over 15 years to learn the family members. But I now know the upper level and am working my way down through the generations.

What a pleasure!

My husband's family is comprised of some of the most special Jews I have ever met. They are real, "old world," Jews. Their whole world revolves around Torah, and has for generations. They are deeply religious, and highly knowledgeable. Yet they are not removed from the rest of Am Yisrael. All of the older generation men served in the army. Some of them have secular educations, in addition to their yeshiva background. All wear "black hats." Many of them have prominent positions as Rashei Yeshiva and Rabbanei Sh'chuna. And all have open doors to all of Am Yisrael, no matter what background one comes from.

When Moshe and I first married, some of the cousins were particularly warm and welcoming to us. Inviting us to their homes, inviting us for Shabbat. Even today, we know that we are welcome whenever we want.

It is a warm feeling to be embraced so lovingly by one's family.

Tonight, we were invited to one of the cousin's grandchildren's wedding. We are not always included in these invitations, as we are only 3rd cousins (and there are hundreds of third cousins). It is a real honor, and a privilege to be included.

These weddings are all separate seating, with a mechitzah (physical divider). I spend the wedding socializing with the women, but don't really have contact with the men.

So, you can imagine my surprise, when the grandmother of the kallah (bride), tells me that her husband is waiting by the mechitzah to talk with me.

Her husband is a talmid chacham, and a well-respected teacher. And he was waiting at the mechitzah for me.

I rushed over.

I immediately wished him a Mazal Tov and thanked him for including us in their simcha.

And then, to my surprise, he thanked me for making the effort to attend.

I cannot express the depth of my emotion at his attentiveness.

I am the wife of a distant cousin. And yet he took the time, and made the effort, to seek me out, and to wish me a refuah shlaymah (full recovery), and to give me his brachot (blessings).

Earlier, his wife, my mother-in-law's cousin, told me that I am included in her daily prayers. Even today, on the day of her granddaughter's wedding, she recited Tehillim (Psalms) for my refuah.

Perhaps one day I will write more about this amazing couple. His father was the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Hevron, where Moshe's grandfather came to study, and survived the Arab pogrom (massacre) of 1929. She raised their children with an educational philosophy that was years ahead of her time. Both were born in Palestine, and watched the birth and growth of the State of Israel. Both are strongly religious and Zionist.

I had wanted to stay home tonight. I was immensely tired. It was cold and rainy out. I just wanted to crawl into my cozy bed and rest.

But I went to the wedding, because it is a privilege to be included in these smachot.

It is a privilege to be welcomed into a world that is so different from mine, and to be so lovingly included.

May we all be zohim (merit) to celebrate many more smachot together!


Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA