There are many definitions of identifying an old friend. For some it could be a person whom one has grown up with and over the years have kept up with. For others it might be someone who we were once close with but because of distance or life circumstance we are not in touch with as frequently as we would like to be. However, when we do see each other again, after a relatively long period of absence in each other’s life, somehow it is as though we were never separated. Nina always comments on the “Maimonides Group”—former Bostonians who went to Maimonides High School in Brookline and who have moved on with their lives. Brother, if they happen by chance to see each other, it is like old home week and watch out if you were not a part of that original chevra.
We remember being at a wedding in Toronto. Our association with this wedding was that the chattan was the son of friends from Los Angeles, and since we felt that they probably would not have many friends present due to the fact that they lived so far away, we decided to drive to Toronto to wish Mazel Tov to them. (By the way, for those of you who think we must know their relatives in Toronto because we lived in Montreal, the distance between the two cities is 314 miles.) There Nina was, sitting in the women’s section during the chuppah when she noticed a woman get up and go across the mechitzah to talk to a man sitting in the men’s section.
Of course, which man did she choose to speak with? None other than Mordechai Glick! Who was the woman who made this instant decision to speak with an “old friend”? It was Miriam Heinemann—Rav Moshe Heinemann’s wife. (Rabbi Heinemann is a well-known posek and heads the Agudath Israel of Baltimore Synagogue and is the rabbinical supervisor of the Star-K kashrus certification agency.)
She had spotted an “old Maimonides alum.” Miriam also was a Maimonides graduate. She told us later that her husband knows that when the phone rings in their Baltimore home and she suddenly is scurrying to go out no matter what the time of night, he is aware that somewhere from Maimonides must be in town.
Although real friends are the ultimate in what can be comfort and solace, there are other less tangible “friends” that we begin to associate with our lives in that we make use of them on a daily basis. Some have a specific coffee mug that they rely on for that first lift of the day. Nina relies on an old-fashioned chopper that belonged to her mother. When her food processor died, she was bereft that she would have to learn to use another model with even more buttons and settings.
We all know of children who are attached to their “blankie,” others care about their teddy bear, and as they grow we become less comfortable watching as some of our children continue to rely on their thumb as a source of comfort. Nina used to feel that one of our children would still have her bottle at her chuppah.
For the past two weeks, many of us, who learned to rely on what has become an old friend rather quickly, had to suffer from withdrawal without having the Jewish Link to read on Shabbat. Friday night, we were told by many who we met, was not the same. What would they read? Even in our household, where Nina has generally read most of The Link prior to its publication, we missed the familiarity of reading it. Unbelievably, recently the Link celebrated its 100th issue. Quite amazing that in that time it has become a well-known part of the family for so many of us. Mazel Tov to the entire team for giving us so much pleasure and bringing this new friend into our homes.
By Rabbi Mordechai and Nina Glick
