Our Special Dividends
The other day I received an e-mail from an old friend telling me that she and her husband were going to be first time grandparents in April. From her note it was easy to see her excitement and feel her joy. My friend can’t wait to become a grandmother. Her note inspired me to write this blog.
We learn that the cycle of life and family are the foundation of Jewish life and guarantor of Jewish survival. This Shabbos we will start to read Sefer Bereishis [book of Genesis], the first book of the five books of the Torah.
Over the course of many weeks we will read about some families, children and grandchildren of our patriarchs and matriarchs. The barren wife of Avraham Avinu, Sara who gave birth in her old age, sibling rivalries, and Yaakov, his wives and family.
Purim we read about Queen Esther and how she risked her life to save the Jewish people and the continuation of the Jewish family.
On Shavous here to we learn about family. We read in Megilla Ruth, about Naomi and her two daughters-in-law who are sisters. Ruth became the grandmother of David HaMelech [King David] and Orpah became the grandmother of Goliath.
The cycle of the family begins with a child being born. As children, we are totally dependent on our parents for all our needs. Our parents have the tremendous responsibility of caring for us, teaching us, showing us right from wrong, guiding us and helping to shape the kind of person we will be. Our extended family, grandparents, aunts and uncles also play a part in who we are.
As we grow from childhood to teenager, to young adult, to adult, our needs from our parents become very different, but our family is still the most important aspect in our lives. We are now able to be somewhat independent and stand on our own ‘two feet.’
The next stage of our life is meeting that someone special and marriage. Now a new family is ready to be started.
Quietly, we as parents pray to The One Above for His guiding Hand to our new couple.
Now it is ‘we instead of I’. The next 40 odd years will be spent by working, raising a family, marrying off our children, and waiting for the grandchildren to arrive to be the next generation and continue the cycle of the family. My father a”h would say that grandchildren are life’s dividends. How true! I can only imagine the thrill of having the Bracha to greet our great-grandchildren.
The cycle of life is an exciting journey. There are many stages in a person’s life and in order to fulfill and reach our potential, we need to experience each stage, one step at a time. In life, we experience many emotions, happiness, sadness, ups and downs. The kind of person we turn out to be and what we accomplish in life depends on our upbringing, environment and what goals we set for ourselves.
Each stage of life is very important. My husband and I have experienced many stages in our married lives. The excitement of waiting for our daughters to be born, the adoption of our son, as young parents and sometimes as older parents making some ‘mistakes’ in raising our children and enjoying our successes, to watching our daughters become mothers themselves and raise their children. The nachas [joy], the laughter, the happiness and the memories that our children have given us will keep us smiling in our golden years.
We have been truly blessed with three great kids, two daughters and a son, two wonderful sons-in-law and 12 precious grandchildren. Our family has grown from just the two of us to nineteen. B”H! We pray that our grandchildren, the next generation, will continue the shower us with Yiddish nachas.
During Chol H’Moed Sukkot we visited our children and grandchildren. And being typical grandparents we did what typical grandparents do.....we took pictures of the children.
Our special dividends:
From left to right:
Top: Nadav and Talia
Center: Neta, Adi and Chen
Bottom: Gilad and the Horev girls
From left to right:
Top: Itamar and Bat-El
Center: Yoni and Oshrei
Bottom: Dvir and Michael
And while we are on the subject of grandchildren, our grandson Dvir went with his class to a Succot Fair in Nachalot, a section of Jerusalem, to see the Etrogim on display. A photographer from the weekly newspaper BeSheva snapped a picture of some of the children and it was printed on their front paper. Dvir [yellow hat] was in the picture. I told him that I would post the picture on my blog.
Please feel free to comment and pass my blog around.
Until next time..........
Miriam
