Shavuot Stories

This Shavuot I sat next to my two good friends, Debbie and Chava in shul. I choose these two because they put up with my quirkiness and my straight-on view of the world.

Sometimes I can be a little rough around the edges - a quality not readily accepted by all. I can also be good natured, but I've noticed as I get older, I am definitely getting crankier.

Like with the stupid young newlywed we had lunched with. Debbie, Chava and I, along with my husband and three sons, went to another dear friend's for lunch. That's where we first encountered the newlyweds.

A very handsome couple indeed, young, she Ashkenazi, he Sephardic French. We didn't find out she was stupid until much later, so lunch passed very well, and the food, as usual, was delicious.

Debbie and I went to a shuir after lunch, and when we were walking home, we ran into the girl just walking around, on her way to the shuir that had just ended. Clue #1. Then she talked about her mother-in-law, an Israeli who felt the girl was slighting her by not speaking Hebrew to her, although the girl assured us she wasn't fluent in the language. But since her sisters-in-law spoke English, there was much merriment and laughter, excluding the mother-in-law, which didn't go over well.

As we were walking home, the girl in tow, Debbie began to reminisce about being in Israel years ago, hooking up with a gorgeous Israeli man she had met in Greece and how it didn't work out. The girl looked at Debbie, now 60 years old, and said, "oh, you must have been really pretty back then."

Okay, honesty is always a good policy, but stupid is as stupid does and as Debbie later recalled, my eyes bugged out when I said that Debbie is still beautiful. All I can say is I wish this girl's husband a lot of luck and friends he can actually hold a conversation with.

The shuir was another story. My community is truly blessed with amazing Torah scholars, and one in particular, a former Litvak-turned-Lubavitch is Rabbi Reuven Wolf. He spoke about how with the world in the state it's in, Moshiach cannot be far off. Chaddius will pave the way, and it's up to us to do the right thing. I was overwhelmed with emotion when he spoke about our teenagers, and how they suffer in this final showdown between good and evil. That really hit close to home.

Otherwise, I can't complain. I mean, not anymore about my mother-in-law's sugar-free cheese cake. Oh my gosh, talk about miserable. G-d's blessings still shower down on us, and all Klal Yisroel. Amen.