I believe that I made a grave mistake in my column last week. I have been told that it gave a different message to some people than I meant to convey. I honestly believe that checking out who your neighbors are is not a bad idea, especially on a busy roadway such as New Bridge, and I do envy those who live on streets where they can socialize or not with those living within walking distance to them with the knowledge that if you run out of cocoa when you are making brownies you can run over and borrow some. I also believe that being kind to neighbors, whoever they are, is a midah that we should teach our children. I did not in any way mean to imply that people in this community are not friendly, kind and deeply involved in caring.
Actually I have written in the past of the enormous amount of chesed which goes on here every single day, some of which no one even knows about. Additionally, the outpouring of chesed which has been shown to me has given me much pleasure and solace. For those to whom I gave the incorrect impression, please forgive me.
Totally changing subjects after I got that off my chest, I would prefer to concentrate on the beauty of Shavuot, which this year is very kind to the family chefs of the community in that they really only have to prepare meals for one extra day. Our family has always been a great lover of dairy, so Shavuot was a time to prepare my fanciest and best meals that I would not normally serve for a plain and simple midweek dairy meal. Never did I dream that I might have some children by marriage who don’t appreciate cheese fondue! Which gives me the brilliant idea for a new category for the ever important shidduch resume. It should read as follows: What foods do you dislike? Do you eat broccoli and cauliflower, brussel sprouts and asparagus (all frozen with hashgacha of course)? Do you insist on chicken soup on Friday night or would you be okay with cream of zucchini soup? Would you eat Dunkin under hashgacha when you are in a city far from your yeshiva? And the piece de resistance: Will you eat a milchig meal on Shavuot and, also, at a meal during a two day Yom Tov? I won’t even get into their favorite cuts of meat.
I bet that the shadchanim of the world will be thrilled with these suggestions as it will make it so much easier to choose appropriate matches.
If we had a resume when we married—b”H we did not—my husband would have had a hard time answering those questions. His mother called most of the above vegetables goyish! She knew from opening a can of peas and making tzimmes with fresh carrots. My parents always had a dairy meal on Yom Tov and, please keep it between us, there were times when we even ate dairy on Shabbat afternoon. I am only disclosing this now since my children are all taken and I doubt that any future inlaws of my unmarried grandchildren will delve this deeply into their grandparents’ eating habits.
Briefly, as it is a short week for The Link, I want to wish everyone a wonderful chag. Whatever it is you choose to eat, may it satiate your appetites and allow you the opportunity to have ice cream for dessert!
Nina Glick can be reached at [email protected]
