My father (may he rest in peace) grew up speaking Yiddish at
home. In fact, he started kindergarten at public school not speaking a word of
English; fortunately, children tend to learn languages very quickly. My mother
heard some Yiddish growing up but was far from fluent. So, when my parents
tried to keep something from my brother and sisters and me, my father would be
forced to pepper his Yiddish with so much Pig Latin that we could easily figure
out what he was trying to say without ever learning much Yiddish. Still, many
expressions, or at least their English translations, are quite familiar.
One that came to mind yesterday was
מיט איין
תּחת קען מען ניט טאַנצן אויף צוויי חתונות.
Mit eyn tokhes ken men nit tantsn af
tsvey khasenes.
You can't dance at two weddings with one behind
This expression came to mind when I saw an article in this
past Sunday’s New York Times “Weddings” section about the September 10th
wedding of Avital Zipper and Andrew Scheer. The bride, Tali, is the sister of
our dear friend Michal, Co-Founder and President of BabyK’tan. Their father,
Stuart unfortunately died of cancer a few years ago; their mother, Orah,
remains a treasured friend. Tali is the Vice President of Marketing for Baby K’tan
and Andrew received his smicha
(rabbinic ordination) from Yeshivat
Chovevei Torah, the institution founded by our own Rabbi Avi Weiss.
We were invited to Tali and Andrew’s wedding, which was in
New York, but in addition to the fact that I was still in the midst of
treatment for bladder cancer, our “behinds” were already engaged in another simcha (Jewish celebratory event) that
day: the celebration of our granddaughter Eliana becoming a Bat Mitzvah. Still, seeing Tali and
Andrew on the pages of the Sunday New York Times was quite a thrill.
We had a very nice weekend in New York. Shabbat was low key, just the two of us. On Sunday we met up with our young friends Ava and Jason. Ava is a resident in radiation oncology at Mount Sinai who has also been through a cancer diagnosis and treatment (I wrote about her on 27 August 2016); Jason is her fiancé. With my treatment over these past months we had not had a chance to get together for a while. We met at the 79th Street Boat Basin Café, taking advantage of an unusually warm October day. I am not sure if it is the residual effect of our respective treatments but based on Ava’s and my experience yesterday, if you do go over there you should take note that the Pina Coladas they serve are quite strong! I am not sure I said anything coherent. Still, it was wonderful seeing them.
Have a great week!
Love,
Rebecca
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