"Good Shabbos"

Friday evening I had one of the most meaningful and enjoyable evenings in a long, long time. I attended my first Shabbos. Shabbos is the day of rest for Jewish people. This family is Orthodox. The parents are 43, and the mother just absolutely glows. It's so obvious that she has chosen the right path for her life.

It seems that service is a big part of this family's life. I tried to remember the last time I had such an impressive multi dish meal and it was in 1996! The children are 10 boy, 7 girl, 5 boy and 3 boy. 

 I told mom I was going to spend some time with the children because "I don't get many opportunities to be around kids" So Abby  the 7 y.o.  said: "Don't you work in the preschool anymore?" "What do you do?!" She's the record youngest human to ask "What do you do?!"

Shoshana* had me help light the candles and showed me how to say the prayer. You wave your hands 3 x and then cover your eyes before you say the prayer. Before the meal started the dad put his hands on each child's head and said a prayer. Each child had a huge smile on their face during the prayer. The children are so so happy!

When I was growing up (I lived with my adoptive parents for 24 years) I don't recall more than 3 shared meals in those years! Sitting down communally sure is a lost art, and those kids are really benefitting from it!

The meal took about 2.5 hours if not more, as they took breaks to say singing prayers. Mom already has an idea of who the right boy is for their daughter! So I asked them about the matchmaking tradition as well as asking many other questions about the yarmulke, the long curls by the ears and many more questions.

("Matchmaker, matchmaker make me a match find me a find catch me a catch)

The evening brought back the memory of my parents suddenly deciding to enroll me in Hebrew school without explaining why.  I had never even been in a synagogue. I recall that my Hebrew name was Rivka. I also remember visiting the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and putting a written prayer in the wall in 8/87.

Shalom