Sunday, February 21, 2016

What's In a Name

Friday morning ... I've been suffering from jet lag in such a weird way.  I find that I am sleepy a lot, and that when I do fall asleep, I sleep for weird amounts of time, and then pop awake at bad times.  Like 2am, which is really 9am in Israel ...

That said, my husband asked if I was going to take the kids to school Friday morning.  I said, I hope so.  There was a bris scheduled for the morning, but I highly doubted I would make it there given my situation right now.  So imagine my surprise when I wake up Friday morning at like 5am, and couldn't fall back asleep.  I got the girls up at 6:30 and asked if they wanted to go to the bris.  They were very excited at the chance. Only problem is that I am horrible with time management, and the next thing you know it's 7:10 and I still need to daven AND get dressed.  Oiy vey.  I start to daven and debate about blowing off the bris.  But then I think: "Wait, this is my good friend.  I should go to share in her simcha (celebration)."  So I get myself together and get there just a little late.  Unfortunately, I got there right after the actual bris.  I stood in the back with my friend, whose daughter is the baby's mother.  We are standing there, and I hear the name .. Yehuda Yosef.  I look at Terri, and she is crying. She shakes her head, yes, and says, He's named after Yossi a'h.  WOAH!  I start crying.  I run out to the hallway, and call my husband.  Of course, I am crying so he can't understand what I am saying.  (He told me later, DON'T EVER CALL ME UP CRYING!  I THOUGHT SOMEONE DIED or you had a car accident, chas v'shalom.  I told him they were happy tears, but how was he to know?  All he heard was crying.)  It was very emotional.  I was not the only one crying there.  (Yehuda is after the father's grandfather, who recently passed away.  He was a gentle and kind man and I hope the family gets a lot of comfort from the little namesake like I am getting.)

During the meal, the father of the baby made a very lovely speech.  He spoke about who Yehuda and Yosef were in the bible. Then he spoke about the namesakes.  The thing that I cherish the most is that he said, "Other people named their babies after Yossi, and I felt jealous.  I wanted to express my love for him, and now I can."  (I am paraphrasing.)  What a gift!  What a beautiful beautiful gift he gave me.  As much as he appreciated Yossi's friendship, I know Yossi truly appreciated his.  It goes both ways.  What an incredible gift they gave me just before his 15th yartzeit!

And with that thought in mind .. I decided that this year I would focus on the topic of simcha.  It almost seems like an oxymoron to put yartzeit and simcha together, but that is what I am attempting to do. 

(I did not put any names in this post because I didn't ask permission from the family.)


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