As I slowly walked towards my home from my lunch/visit with my hosts Rabbi Tanchum and Yaffa Cohen I could not stop thinking about what I had just experienced. I had the zechus of sharing their Yom Tov table with Yaffa’s parents, Rabbi Hershel and Shoshana Schachter. I am honored to say that we have been friends for many years dating back to our YU days.
There I was shmoozing primarily with Shoshana, Yaffa and the girls and experiecing the wonderment of being at a table with a gadol hador. This man was not the world known posek. He was not the rav of Yeshiva University and all of the rabbonim and talmidim who were fortunate enough to sit in on his shiurim and learn from his brilliance. This was a zaidie sitting at the table with his grandchildren, and as he spoke with them it was as though they were mesmerized. I could not get over their faces. All were entranced. The bantering back and forth included laughs and serious moments as the discussion included questions that these young boys and men pummeled their zaidie with. I am so grateful that I was fortunate enough to be present to observe the gentleness and kindness that Rav Schachter emitted with a passion from his soul, which for me was breathtaking. Every word was eaten up by the boys with the same enthusiasm as they had for Yaffa’s food.
On a very different note, I had the zechus of attending the bris of my newest great-grandson on Sunday Chol Hamoed Pesach. Our daughter Chavie has had much experience catering various events in the home that she and Chaim frequently open to the community, but never before had she catered a Pesach bris in her home. (There’s always a first.) Tzvi and Esther Hagler chose to name their son Mordechai Gavriel, with Tzvi speaking eloquently during the seuda about his relationship with his zaidie Mordechai and the wish that his little son would grow to daven with the same kavana as his zaidie did as well as with the simchat hachaim that my Mordechai always felt. Extremely emotional for me and my children. This moment is one that I will never forget. In my own inimitable way I drove to the cemetery today to tell my Mordechai about his first namesake and even brought a picture of the baby for him to see.
Life can be so beautiful and so cruel at the same time. I have chosen right now to concentrate on the beauty. The cherry blossom tree in front of my house, right below my bedroom window, was one that always gave us so much joy. It is now in full bloom. A grandson returning to Yeshivat Sha’alvim and another choosing to go to Ner Yisroel after returning from shana bet at Reishit; another grandson beginning his studies at BMG are all making me feel proud and would definitely be something that my Mordechai would remind me is why we have so much to be grateful for. Our beauty has never been caught up in material things.
Looking back at how I spent my Pesach, first in Rochester at a home with 14 great-grandchildren under the age of 11, then returning in time for a bris, and then having the zechus to be a part of the Schachter/Cohen family only instills in me once again the extreme beauty that Hashem has allowed me to notice and exalt.
Nina Glick can be reached at [email protected].
