I.
First of all, thanks for a job well done! Your column is
the first I turn to each week, after the headlines.
With the upcoming Bein Hazemanim, may I request some ideas on
vacation places for families with children -- parks, zoos,
one-day trips etc. in Yerusholayim and outside the city?
Also, some indoor places for hot weather. All places should
conform to standards of Tzniyus - Rochel S.
Dear Fan -- that's a difficult order, especially the last,
since PLACES may be fine, but the people who visit them, not
necessarily models of propriety. Still, we might suggest
exploring the various religious neighborhoods, a different
one each time.
This begins with a bus ride, already fun and relatively
cheap. Each place has its own playground. Maybe have children
who are old enough fan out and explore street names, draw a
map and salient features, discover shuls and their names
etc., interview children. You can give out points for all
kinds of information, or create hints in advance, something
like a scavenger hunt. This can be done late afternoon,
ending with a simple outdoor picnic and a watermelon prize.
Children can work in pairs or all together.
The various tourist information bureaus (listed in your phone
book) will supply you with brochures and maps of the
different places of interest in the city for you to visit,
and whether entrance is free. You will have to use your own
discretion as to what you want your children to see. We used
to take children to such places as Heichal Shlomo, which has
a very nice exhibit on micrography (tiny writing on egg
shells etc.), religious articles, and a three-D diorama
exhibit on Jewish history plus a nice shul downstairs
with stained glass windows. (In those days, even riding in
the elevator was a novelty!) Pretty kosher, but not everyone
may feel comfortable there politically. Maybe have some adult
scout out places listed before you take the family. All parks
are listed and the bus routes to get to them. Maps and many
museums are for free!
NOT TIED DOWN: Since during this time you are not
particularly tied down to any time schedule, how about doing
things differently. NINE DAY WONDER -- try taking the entire
family to the Kosel for Tikun Chatzos. Prepare them in
advance, tell stories about prayer at the Kosel. Alternately,
you may wish to visit the Kosel early, early in the morning
for the sunrise minyon, also a very rewarding experience. Do
this the first week of Av, get to know the regulars, perhaps
engage them in conversation. People are not so hurried at
this time. You may wish to compare notes later about the
different types of people you saw. Give the children coins to
give to tzedoka, and end up with a roll-and-leben
breakfast someplace in the Old City.
Locate people who know others in the older neighborhoods of
Jerusalem and ask if you can pay a short (20 minute) visit
and hear them talk about old times. There will be many
oldtimers with time on their hands who will be glad for the
attention. Someone must have grandmothers in Botei Warsaw,
Botei Rand, Botei Ungarin and so on, who would be thrilled to
talk.
SUPPER IN THE DARK -- pick a park and plan your supper there -
- after eight, when it is already dark. The boys can find a
convenient shul for maariv while you set up.
The menu, pita, falafel or whatever, can be the afternoon
activity, and the park experience can run as long as you
like, till ten. Bring jumpropes, balls, games. The novelty
will be so exciting that they will want to do it more
often.
Line up FACTORIES and FOOD PLANTS, like Tnuva, Angel etc.
where you can have a guided tour. Get together groups of
twenty (no problem, right?) and they will be glad to
accommodate. The postal building is fascinating -- to see
mail sorted etc. Air conditioned, most of these.
Once you get started, there will be no limit to ideas, and
transportation will probably be your only costs. Have fun,
educational fun!
THEMES: Visit a kosher library and help children pick out
books on a subject: Yerusholayim etc. Have children prepare
small story skits, maybe invite friends. Help them with
props, allow a budget.
*
PUT THE KIDS IN THE KITCHEN and you get out of it. Let them
plan menus, whatever, and prepare the meals! Think of
kashrus problems in advance, like checking eggs,
sifting flour etc. Let them even do the shopping! A great way
to start the day is with these easy, delicious
HOME MADE ROLLS
Have your early birds get up and make this dough, then set
aside to rise while they daven. Should be ready for
baking by the time they are all ready. Late birds will
naturally get up when they smell the rolls baking...
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
heaping tablespoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons dry yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup oil
sesame seeds (checked)
Instructions:
Mix all ingredients, saving some of the oil for last. As the
dough forms, knead well, until it leaves the side of the
bowl, then add the last bit of oil. This will make it smooth
and soft. Cover with plastic bag.
When the dough is doubled in size, punch down, form long
frank-rolls, dip in water and then in sesame seed. Let rise
for another 15 minutes. Bake till brown.
This can become a regular vacation activity. Children can
invite friends to sleep over and include this.
*
A LETTER of another kind...
I was utterly shocked reading the article, "Help! A Drama
in Real Life" [about a refrigerator breaking down], 20
Sivan.
I have never read such a tasteless article. I am sure the
writer has never been ill or had close relatives ill...
Sara V., London
We beg to differ. What may seem to you total irreverence, is,
nevertheless, to us, a whole theosophical approach to
life.
TOTAL APPRECIATION: Why relegate Hashem only to your
siddur or a sickbed? Hashem is not only outside your
refrigerator, He is inside it, too, and making its heart
beat. We need not bow to that appliance and pray to it: but
you should be perceptive enough to realize that when it runs,
we should be appreciative, and when it limps, we should be
concerned in a far reaching way.
Dovid Hamelech lived his life with total awareness:
Shivisi Hashem. Whatever we do, even if it is to
thrust our hand into a pocket and come up without the correct
change -- it is because it has been thus decreed. Everything
is a message from Hashem, not that we are to sit and ponder
over every little thing, but yes, that we are to think, and
to live our lives cognizant, being thankful for everyday
things and wary of, perhaps, our own shortcomings when things
SEEM to us to be going wrong.
Chazal certainly point out the obligation of appreciation for
every little thing, every BREATH we breathe. This also
extends to the inanimate things we own, like `little jars'
etc. Wells that provide water -- should not have stones cast
into them. Staffs that perform a service should be treated
with deference, not `ab-used.' Every leaf that falls was so
ordained to fall.
Why not extend our gratitude to Hashem for refrigerators, who
serve so well? No one is silly enough to think that they
have a life of their own, but as an example, as an extension
of Hashem's overall kindness to Mankind in allowing
electricity to be discovered and inventors to invent, they do
very well. It is very shortsighted to turn to Hashem only
when sickness strikes. As the Chofetz Chaim pointed out in a
very graphic moshol, we should cast our ENTIRE burden
upon Hashem, not like the foolish beggar who was given a
hitch in a wagon and insisted on keeping his knapsack on his
back! You can pray for refrigerators, too, and for all
things, big and little, to go smoothly.
And another aspect: Chazal teach that Hashem strikes at a
person's possessions before He gives warnings to their
bodies. Perhaps the writer preempted any illness in the
family G-d forbid, as you suggest, by her sensitive awareness
of a problem existing and by praying. Perhaps it was her sign
to introspect and do tshuva in some area or another.
We are not supposed to make any direct connections, I think,
but perhaps she might be moved to improve in the area of
hospitality or something else related. Just a wild guess, but
this, I think, is how we should live our lives, thinking,
absorbing messages, trying to improve, and not just shrugging
our shoulders and saying, "Oh, well, refrigerators do go
kaput after so many years. That's life." That's Amolek.
I can imagine different scenarios to end the story, Ex
Machina, like Hashgocha Protis providing her a good
refrigerator for cheap etc. Then our letter writer might not
have written her letter. But whatever happened had its own
time and particular reason, and we leave it up to our readers
to commiserate and draw any enlightening conclusions they
wish.
I have my own refrigerator story to reinforce this attitude:
since Pesach (due to overscrubbing, perhaps), it hadn't been
keeping things cold but even after 18 years, I was reluctant
to part with it. A heaven-sent brainstorm prompted me to get
the rubber door gasket changed (for only 280 shekel) and now
it is born-again. Let me tell you, ever since, I have been
going around in mini-euphoria, ever so grateful to Hashem for
the idea and for making me go and do it. Hashem is definitely
inside and outside my refrigerator these days, with no
sacrilege intended.
Would love to hear the reactions of other readers, either
way. Handwritten notes cheerfully read. Mail: Weinbach, Panim
Meirot 1. FAX 02-538-7798.
