Rabbi’s Musings & Amusings

The following thoughts are adapted from the speech I delivered at the aufruf of our new son-in-law, Shloime Stern, Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Shemini 5785:

Erev Pesach is an intensely busy time. It’s also a very hungry time. By late morning, we can no longer eat chametz, but we are also not permitted to eat any matzah. The Seder doesn’t begin until after dark, and we don’t eat the seudah (Shulchan Oreich) until some time after that. It’s not easy finding something to eat on Pesach afternoon that will hold you over for a few hours.

As I have done during the last few winters, this past January I had the great fortune to visit Eretz Yisrael for a few days. Being there is always invigorating. The fact that I was able to spend that time with our son Shalom, who is learning in Yeshivas Mir, and enjoy a Shabbos with my brother Yaakov and his family made it all the more special.

So, there was my car, minding its own business, parked on the side of the road just up the block from the yeshivah. It was the morning of Taanis Esther, and it would be a busy afternoon for me, before Purim began. I got out of the car to enter the yeshivah building. My son Avi was still sitting in the car, when he heard a bump.

On January 19, 1988, The New York Times published the following Letter to the Editor:

This week, I brought an invitation to my father-in-law for our daughter Aviva’s wedding in a few weeks. It was quite an emotionally draining experience. The wind was howling as I stood in front of his kever in Mount Sinai Cemetery on 7^th Street in Lakewood, New Jersey, and placed the invitation under some rocks. It was the day before we marked my father-in-law’s third yahrzeit, on the 18^th of Adar. I think there is a certain beauty to the fact that his yahrzeit is “chai Adar,” literally the life of Adar.