Am I the only one who cracked up when I heard the name of the category 5 hurricane which recently arrived on the shores of the Caribbean, then moved on to the Yucatan Peninsula and the Gold Coast, and who knows where and when it will make landfall? Who picked the name Beryl? There had to be a chassidishe person who snuck into the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and impressed them enough to be hired. It could be that his suggestions of names for future hurricanes were so rare and interesting that the WMO grabbed him or her as a breath of fresh air. I just can’t wait until we get near the end of this hurricane season and we are up to Hurricane Shprintze!
There is nothing funny about a hurricane and the devastation it can do. Apparently, this one was compared in size to Hurricane Sandy, which most of us remember and still cringe when thinking about. There were so many areas without power and standing in line to get gasoline for our cars was actually the beginning of our life in Bergenfield. Not everyone can say that they had such a welcome. We had the zechut of moving here on the day that Sandy arrived. I recall going to Kew Garden Hills in Queens for Shabbat as that area was not hit with the same amount of devastation. It seemed like a joke when my nephew told me that in the Young Israel of Oceanside lobby there were fish swimming around on the floor. Suddenly, major snow storms in Quebec seemed much more attractive to us than this new weather pattern.
I was curious about how names of hurricanes are determined, and apparently there are six alphabetical lists of hurricane names that are rotated every six years. I believe that they alternate hurricane names between male and female. However, now that we have determined that there is clearly a chassidishe individual working at the WMO, he or she has suggested having one year of male names and the next of female names because we know the tragedy of mixing anything male and female.
Isn’t it amazing how Hashem must feel that we need a reminder every once in a while to see that our lives are really not in our control. We all acknowledge that, yet somehow there seems to be this feeling of how many negative things are “not meant to happen to us.” How many begin to check the weather for 14 days prior to making a simcha? The good old weatherman has failed many times in his predictions. Pouring rain predicted for a Sunday turns out to be a beautiful, sunny, warm and lovely day.
It is time for us to realize many, or do I dare say most, things in life are not under our control at all. “But I picked the Marina for my daughter’s wedding because the chuppah on the water with the skyline in the background is so magnificent.” In the end on that rainy day the sun was shining throughout the occasion as the chatan and kallah began their life with their loved ones indoors and just as happy as they would have been had Hashem had other plans for the weather.
I remember the first year we were living in Montreal and there was a “gala” bar mitzvah planned in our shul. The parents of their only son wanted it to be “out of this world.”
Orchids were ordered from Hawaii (I kid you not) and only the finest of the finest was going to accompany this young man into his role of manhood. The caterer had begun delivering all of the food to the shul as the snow began to descend upon the city. We are not talking a few inches. By Erev Shabbat the realization dawned on the family that no one would be able to make it to the shul. Out-of-town guests had no chance of getting in and locals had feet of snow to trudge through. The caterer could no longer bring his trucks near the shul to deliver the final goods.
With great disappointment the family of the boy decided to cancel the bar mitzvah. The orchids sat in the shul with I believe a few on my dining room table. We ate very well that Shabbat, welcoming catered food into our home and, as they say, the best laid plans. The poor boy celebrated his simcha the following week without any of the hoopla that had been anticipated.
There were no imported flowers, he had no idea of a word of his new Haftorah and grew up to be a fine young man despite what they described as being a catastrophe. Who said that we are in charge of our lives? We try to do the best we can, but let us not kid ourselves, Hashem is in charge and we are following his script.
Nina Glick can be reached at [email protected].
