There was once a little boy who was learning the Navi Malachi with his grandfather.
When they got to the possuk of,
“והשיב לב אבות על בנים”, he asked his Zaidy, “But I don’t understand! This nevuah doesn't make any sense! If the parents don’t know the right path themselves, and they don’t teach it to their children, how can the ‘sons ever return the hearts of their fathers’?! How can the children possibly know, if they haven’t learned it from their parents?”
His grandfather replied, “You’re right! Honestly, I don’t understand how this nevuah is possible, either! But if that’s what it says in the navi, then we must have simple faith that one day, it will somehow come true…”
With this in mind, I remember how emotional I was the first time that I watched a daughter give a Jewish name to her mother, and then a while later, to her grandmother!
Because throughout history, it was always the parents who named their children, and here for the first time, I was watching the children naming their parents, and grandparents…
Over time though, I kind of got used to this new normal, and so I didn’t even realise how special it was when Shaina’s mother and grandmother received their Jewish names this morning. (Her mother asked to receive a Jewish name at the bris of her grandsons on Thursday, but we were only able to give the names today.)
But after sending the video of their Jewish namings to Shaina, she left such a touching voicenote in reply, that I was sitting and crying with her…
It’s hard to translate without losing the emotion, but between her tears, it was something like this,
“I just watched the video and I’m sitting and crying! It’s so emotional, because besides for me, I’m so happy that I was successful, at least a drop, in bringing my mother and grandmother a little bit closer to Yiddishkeit… to return them a little bit… to show them a little bit... Because their whole life they were so afraid, their whole life, they tried so hard to hide their Jewish identity. My grandmother still doesn’t understand it until today… but at least a little bit! I’m so happy!”
It was so moving to hear how much nachas Shaina was having from her mother and grandmother!
Throughout history, it was always the parents and grandparents who would have nachas from watching their children and grandchildren going in the path of Torah, but here, once again, we were watching the reverse… A child who was crying tears of joy from the nachas she was having from her mother and grandmother, when she was successful in returning them, at least a little bit, to the path of Torah…
And her next voicenote reminded me of Hashem’s promise, “ודור רביעי ישובו הנה…” -
“My great grandmother’s mother and father were both Jewish, and they were very strong believers, and very frum…
“But he was the last Jewish husband in our family, because my great grandmother, Liba, married a non Jew, and later told her daughter, (Shaina’s grandmother), that these times are so hard and scary for Jews… and so if you want to be able to be successful in life, and go to university etc., then you have to go and convert to X…
“I feel like Hashem was very hurt and offended by this, because they did it consciously…
“We at least, all did it by mistake, without understanding what we were doing… but she knew what she was doing...
“But I think now is a transformative moment for her - she understands how important it is, she knows what’s right, but it’s really hard for her… But at least in these small steps, I’m trying to bring them closer…”
כימי צאתך מארץ מצרים אראנו נפלאות
Keeping their Jewish names was one of the three merits for which the Jewish people were redeemed from Mitzrayim…
And so in the Zechus of our new Ester and Liba, may we immediately be redeemed from this final Golus - and watch as EVERY single one of the prophecies of the Geulah, come true before our eyes!
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