Sixty isn't just another birthday like all those other birthdays. Oh no, this round number, half way to 120 gets its own unique attention.
(As my mother is fond of saying - "shoin ayventer vee viter" - Yiddish for it's closer than it's far way - and then you have to figure out what 'it' is and if 'it' is good.) I like to think of it as an opportunity to look back and reflect on what God has given me and count my blessings.
My special day fell last week. The Jewish date was Tuesday 22 days in Adar and the civil date was Sunday March 22.
My children (without kids and spouses) came from far and wide in the middle of the week and we had a small nuclear family get together. We have never done that since folks started getting married and having families. It was actually very refreshing to sit around and have adult conversations and reminisce without having to explain. We played a parlor game with true and false sentences about me and had pizza. Nice enough. I told the kids that I'd come and celebrate with the grandchildren separately over the next few weeks. One son said we could start by coming to him in Eli (outside Jerusalem) for shabbat and we agreed.
Fast forward, my son told us that we had a 'tremp' from someone working on Friday in Ir David who would pick us up from the Dung Gate. My husband suggested that we take the opportunity to visit the Kotel before meeting our ride.
(I should have suspected something was up, he usually just wants to get where we are going on erev shabbat and not make detours.)
So Friday we packed our bags and set out for Jerusalem. I love Jerusalem. Jerusalem makes me feel at home (even though it's been almost 35 years since I lived there). I am always happy to be in Jerusalem. Friday was a lovely day and after saying our prayers at the Kotel we met up again and my son called me and told me that his friend would be waiting for us outside the gate. My husband had said that one of my daughters was in Jerusalem with her husband because they had been at a wedding on Thursday night and they might meet up with us before we met our ride but it didn't seem to me that there was time.
(At this point I was thinking that maybe that daughter and her husband and daughter were going to surprise me and come with us to Eli for Shabbat.)So what do you suppose happened as we walked out through the gate?
I was greeted by my offspring and their offspring who sprang at me all decked out in T-shirts with my behelmeted Segway photo!
The surprise was was that we would
all spend Shabbat together at the Sfardi Education Center (a hostel just up the hill from where we were standing).
In planning this everyone agreed that there is nothing that makes me happier than being together and the place I love to be is Jerusalem.
They were absolutely right!
ברוך אתה ה', אלקינו מלך העולם, שלא חיסר בעולמו כלום, וברא בו בריות טובות ואילנות טובות ונאות , כדי להנות בהן בני אדם
