Imagine Brooklyn in the early 1950s.
Imagine a grandma telling her little grandson,
as they’re walking to shulSynagogue (Yiddish)
for his cousin Larry’s bar mitzvahLit. Commandment. It is traditionally held that there are 613 mitzvot (plural) in Judaism, both postive commandments (mandating actions) and negative commandments (prohibiting actions). Mitzvah has also become colloquially assumed to mean the idea of a “good deed."
and it starts to rain,
and they’re getting wetter and wetter
and he’s getting more and more upset –
imagine her leaning down and saying to him
(in her heavy Yiddish accent)
“Ven it rens un eh spezial dey
it mins det God iz blezzing it!”
Now imagine another day
soon after that,
a Tuesday,
when Grandma Rose turns to her little grandson
(me) and says:
“Efter Shabbos, Toozdey
iz de segond holiezt dey ov de veek.
It vaz only un Toozdey
det God said tvice in Toirah
“ki tov! – it is good!”
And then she tells him, tells me,
that in her home village,
because of that,
everyone got married on a Tuesday.
Yes, Tuesday,
the last day on which we can wrap up
the previous Shabbos by saying havdalahLit. Separation A ceremony performed on Saturday night to mark the end of Shabbat and the beginning of the week, using wine, a braided candle, and sweet-smelling spices..
In honor of Grandma
and all grandmas –
Holy ShekhinahThe feminine name of God, expounded upon in the rabbinic era and then by the Kabbalists in extensive literature on the feminine attributes of the divine.,
may we all remember the story we tell
about Your creation
on this holy Tuesday
a day when you made
and blessed
both land and
growing things,
a day of double blessings.
May we all embody them,
share them with others,
and spiral them back
to the holy
good good world
that You created!
Amen
