(no subject)
Mar. 19th, 2012 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretLast Tuesday was my grandfather's yahrzeit. It was my grandmother's first yahrzeit about three weeks ago. I can tell already that that double whammy is going to continue to be an exciting time to navigate in future years.
I miss them so much. I lost my grandfather a few months before my Bar Mitzvah, and I remember so distinctly the first time I had to lay tefillin my grandfather's best friend came up to me to help me. I had already been taught by my Bar Mitzvah teacher, and by my father, but I think Meyer felt like it should have been my grandfather's job, so he was going to step in. I found it a little annoying. I was thirteen and a know-it-all and I didn't want anyone to help me. I wanted to do it myself. And besides, he wasn't my grandfather, he was just a surrogate. Meyer passed away last year, so it seems fitting to remember him along with my grandfather. He was, as my grandfather was, an incredibly intelligent and incredibly kind man and as I miss them both, I miss the way they were together, too.
The truth is I did learn a huge amount about Jewish practice from my grandfather, anyway. I learned about prayer as a constancy in your life, a daily ritual that's always supplying new meaning. I learned about the Jewish community as a central clearing house for culture and family and friendship- the synagogue as a focal point for much more than just faith. These are important subtle things that I have slowly learned to put words to as I've grown into my Judaism, but I always had them with me because my grandfather modeled them so well.
And the other thing he modeled was intellectual self-improvement. My grandfather came to America at 12 without a word of English. He always spoke with an accent, but he spoke English fluently, he read avidly, and he absorbed everything about the world around him. I could not possibly have had better role models as a student of life than my grandfather and grandmother. They were so wickedly smart, wickedly clever, and so tough.
I miss them so much. I lost my grandfather a few months before my Bar Mitzvah, and I remember so distinctly the first time I had to lay tefillin my grandfather's best friend came up to me to help me. I had already been taught by my Bar Mitzvah teacher, and by my father, but I think Meyer felt like it should have been my grandfather's job, so he was going to step in. I found it a little annoying. I was thirteen and a know-it-all and I didn't want anyone to help me. I wanted to do it myself. And besides, he wasn't my grandfather, he was just a surrogate. Meyer passed away last year, so it seems fitting to remember him along with my grandfather. He was, as my grandfather was, an incredibly intelligent and incredibly kind man and as I miss them both, I miss the way they were together, too.
The truth is I did learn a huge amount about Jewish practice from my grandfather, anyway. I learned about prayer as a constancy in your life, a daily ritual that's always supplying new meaning. I learned about the Jewish community as a central clearing house for culture and family and friendship- the synagogue as a focal point for much more than just faith. These are important subtle things that I have slowly learned to put words to as I've grown into my Judaism, but I always had them with me because my grandfather modeled them so well.
And the other thing he modeled was intellectual self-improvement. My grandfather came to America at 12 without a word of English. He always spoke with an accent, but he spoke English fluently, he read avidly, and he absorbed everything about the world around him. I could not possibly have had better role models as a student of life than my grandfather and grandmother. They were so wickedly smart, wickedly clever, and so tough.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-19 08:24 pm (UTC)Thinking of you.