Welcome to the Club
December 15, 2006

 

Over the past few weeks “old” men have been coming up to me and saying, “welcome to the club”.  The club.  What club?  I don’t play bridge or pinochle, there are no shuffleboard courts around here, and I’m not a Freemason.  Of course, as you all know, they are talking about the grandfather club.  I think, whoa fellas, my friends are still having kids, I just graduated high school like yesterday (you mean Air Supply is no longer popular?), and I do have a five year old you know.  Nevertheless, time is marching on.  My daughter having a baby is not really so earth shattering; it kind of just flowed from her getting married a little while ago.  But being married to a grandmother and having these "old fogies" claim me as one of theirs, well that’s just something else entirely!

 

Of course we feel very blessed to have reached this new milestone in our lives, and at such a young age no less!  Donniel Moshe has quickly become the center of all our lives.  Etana and Zev stayed with us for the first couple of weeks.  With Zev’s parents in from Cleveland and all of the aunts and uncles around, this kid was rarely not being held by someone.  Of course he’s getting spoiled, but hey, we’re grandparents that’s not our problem.  To lessen the psychological impact of becoming a grandfather I’ve decided to be called “Sabba” which is the Hebrew word for grandfather.  I know it’s an oddity using Hebrew here in our little “Teaneck on the Mediterranean” hamlet, but that’s the beauty of it, no one will realize that I’m a grandfather.  Randi, continuing our pattern has decided to be called grandma.  (The pattern being, Abba/Mommy, Menachem/Randi, and now Sabba/Grandma.)  It’s a mixed marriage but it’s worked for 25 years, so why rock the boat now.

 

Etana delivered in Shaarei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem.  Even though Beit Shemesh is a city of 70,000 people, the closest hospitals are there.  Unlike in the US, Etana’s OB/Gyn did not deliver the baby.  There is somewhat of a disconnect between the doctor who follows the pregnancy and the delivery.  That’s one of the reasons it’s common here for women to hire a labor coach.  In the hospital, under normal circumstances, a midwife delivers the baby.  In addition to the coach, Randi and Zev were there for the delivery as well.  At first Randi was hesitant to be with Etana at such a difficult time.  The norm for us with our parents was, “we’ll let you know when it’s over”, but eventually Randi came around and was happy that she was able to share this special event with Etana and Zev. 

 

The Shalom Zachor was at our house.  It’s actually the first Shalom Zachor we’ve hosted, as the Shabbos after Raanan was born was Yom Kippur.  (We did put out a nice spread after Kol Nidre, but nobody showed up.) Our neighborhood displayed their usual warmth and generosity.  People baked tons of stuff and at one point on Friday night there were about 100 people in the house.  A few of the guys hung around singing until almost midnight.  The baby’s first name Donniel (spelled that way so it will be pronounced as it is in Hebrew and not as Daniel) is a name they really love and Moshe is named for Randi’s father, in spite of  her “subtle” lobbying.

 

Doda (aunt) Meira is relishing her new role.  She is wonderful with Donniel and does not seem to mind in the least the loss of her position as the baby around here.

 

On a totally unrelated note, the other day I was helping Meira get dressed.  As I put on her purple socks she said to me, “How do you say that color in English?”  She’s in Gan Chova now, which is the equivalent of Kindergarten.  The Gan, called Rappaport, is in Ramat Beit Shemesh, not far away, but we got spoiled having her literally next door for the past 2 years.

 

Etana & Zev are adapting to their new role as parents.  They are back in their apartment, but they stop by often.   Their credit card work has slowed down, but, not ones to be idle very long, they recently purchased the stock from a wedding gown rental business which they plan to run out of their apartment.  Zev is pursuing a business degree at Machon Lev and Etana is changing lots of diapers.

 

With the war up North and our co-Aliyah friends, the Sladowskys, in the US making two weddings five weeks apart for their sons Moshe and Yair, our two-year Aliyah anniversary kind of slipped by rather quietly.  We also had several people shuttling back and forth to the states this summer.  Elisheva went in June to ease the separation from her seminary friends.  Raanan went in August as compensation for his cousin chickening out of their long-planned month together. 

 

While Raanan was still there Randi went for a three-week stint of Simchas, shopping, and work.  In those three weeks she attended five weddings, two Bar Mitzvahs, two Sheva Brachos, and two Vorts (engagement parties).  She managed all this while working full time in a nursing home in Edison.  She had a great time seeing so many friends and family and sharing in all those Simchas.  In that time she earned more there than she earns here in four months!  Of course every silver lining has a cloud.  The nursing home was next to Menlo Park Mall and Target!  Needless to say we essentially directly deposited her earnings into those facilities. 

 

Then to continue our tag-team inter-continental family-flying spree Elisheva returned in September toward the end of Randi’s trip to attend a close friend’s wedding.

 

Randi is now working a full five days a week, something she reminds me of on a near daily basis.  She is working three days a week in Beitar, and two days here in Beit Shemesh.  She enjoys the population she works with; pre-school children with developmental issues.  Her Hebrew ability is soaring.  She recently wrote up nineteen IEP reports in Hebrew on the children in her care.

 

As some of you know, I finally decided to do something constructive with my morning hours.  I began attending a Yeshiva called Darche Noam (Shepell’s) back in August.  It continues to be an amazing experience.  The Yeshiva is in Jerusalem and I go Sunday-Thursday from 9-1.  I wrote a short essay about it here.  The essay was written back in October and the experience has only improved since then.  Unfortunately, in a couple of weeks I will be losing my Chavruta (study partner) as his sabbatical from Washington University is ending and he must return to the “real” world.

 

Elisheva is working hard in her web design and graphics course in Har Nof.  She has also been holding down a part time job in Ramat Beit Shemesh in the evenings doing web support.  Elisheva and I often commute on the bus together in the morning.  Sometimes we even get to sit together on, what is generally, a “separate seating” bus line.  Of course on the days I wear one of my more colorful shirts she runs for the other end of the bus!

 

We attended parent-teacher conferences at Raanan’s Yeshiva last week.  His Rebbe had only glowing things to say about him.  His ability to adapt to the language and environment continues to amaze us.  This was his first Rebbe that didn’t speak English.  Luckily Randi was there to translate for me.  In Yeshiva I’m learning the same tractate of Gemorah that Raanan learned last year.  It’s a real source of pride for me to be able to consult him when I have trouble understanding something I'm leraning.  Someday maybe I’ll get to his level!

 

OK, it’s been long enough; I’m ready to run for Prime Minister.  Obviously there are a lot of issues to deal with here, but I think the most urgent is Iran.  I would like to share with you my plan for dealing with them and their President, Mo Ammadinthehead, who, while not denying that the Holocaust happened, threatens to wipe us off the map on an hourly basis.

 

We start with a question. What kept the US and USSR from destroying each other for 40 some-odd years?  I can sum it up in one word, MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction.  Both countries had enough nukes to blow up the entire world many times over, but they also had enough basic humanity to care more about preserving their own populations than destroying their enemy.  Ammadinthehead and the mad Mullahs in Iran are, well, just plain mad.  They really don’t care much about the lives of their population.  In fact they see it as an honor to martyr as many people (besides themselves of course) as they can.  Ammadinthehead has said pretty clearly that he’s willing to lose 15 million of his citizens to an Israeli “second strike”.  So MAD is really not a deterrent for mad people.

 

What to do?  In the long run most people wouldn’t really care if Israel were wiped off the map.  Yes, even the Americans, as wonderful as they are, would manage to get over it.  So we have to give everyone a reason to care.  We could send everyone candy hearts on Valentines Day, but being that those who comprise the vast majority of the “problem” don’t celebrate that holiday, I don’t think it would have much of an effect.  Alternatively, we can promise, in a very public way, to automatically initiate the following response if we are ever struck with WMD.

 

-         Destroy Mecca.

-         Destroy Medina.

-         Destroy the “Dome of the Rock” on the Temple Mount.

-         Destroy the entire oil production capability of the Persian Gulf nations.

 

Now that, and some candy if you want, will give Moslems around the world, our Arab neighbors, and even the French a reason to care about our welfare.  After all, Jews are disposable, but the black gold of non-renewable resources; priceless!

 

Seriously, we are all in the early stages of a world war between civilized humanity and radical Islam.  (I strongly suggest everyone read Mark Steyn’s book, “America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It” to get a glimpse of what we are all facing.)  The cost of losing is unfathomable.  (Earth to U.S. voters … Clinton-Gore-Kerry, and most of the Demostriches still don’t get it.)

 

Notwithstanding the dark picture I just painted, we feel very privileged to be living here.  Yes, it can be scary at times, but there are also so many of those indescribable spiritual moments than only happen here.  Now that I’m actually getting out of the house and traveling to Jerusalem on a daily basis, I see more of this than ever.  What countless Jews of past generations would have given to do just once, I routinely do every day!   Certainly, some people do get it.  Every week hundreds of new Olim arrive and in two weeks Nefesh B’Nefesh will be welcoming their 10,000th Oleh.

 

As we approach Chanuka we should remember that we are celebrating the victory of light over darkness, and of our way life over those who would deny it to us.  We should also do lots of things, often called Mitzvos, to keep G-d on our side.  It would also probably mean a lot to Him if a whole lot more of the people who claim to adhere to His Torah would accept His invitation to return to the land the He gave us.

 

Wishing you all a Happy Chanuka.

 

Menachem