Meaningless Letters, But a Meaningful Letter
A couple of rambles ago I wrote about how my two little children, Chaim and Faye, were without a camp. Of course, you may recall that they were not completely without a camp; they were (by default) enrolled in Camp Daddy Mommy (“CDM”). Due to some fortuitous circumstances (i.e. some local camps had some spots open up), they were able to enroll in camp for the next several weeks.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. Thus it was that we were facing a few more weeks until school starts and now it was not only Chaim and Faye that needed a camp but two more of my children did as well.
With no camps in session and with the directors of Camp Daddy Mommy ready for retirement and a career change (that actually occurred about 2 days into the camp on the first go-around), it was back to the drawing board.
Two of the weeks we are traveling so those were covered.
The last week there will only be 3 days until school so we will probably get through that week. That left us with this week to fill. There has been a tremendous amount of video watching but we don’t really like them having that much screen time. (Although thanks to the constant loop of Wild Kratts playing in my house, I have picked up some information I did not know previously. Did you know that aardvarks eat 30,000 ants each day?) We were able to do a few trips with them (apple picking, science center) but still had a lot of time that needed to be filled.
Enter Family Dollar.
I left the house during one of the kids’ on-the-hour fights with each other and ran over to Family Dollar. I bought a bunch of crayons and coloring books as well as some sticker books and triumphantly returned to the house with my loot.
The kids sat down at the table and began to color and draw. Thankfully, it gave me about an hour of peace and quiet to try and get my own work done.
My daughter Faye told me that she was writing a letter to me and mommy. I responded like all fathers do when they are working with a very sincere “mmm.” She kept badgering me to come see her letter that she wrote so I finally came to see.
What she had written were a bunch of characters and shapes that were what she imagined to be letters. She went on to explain what she had written. It reminded me of looking at a piece of art where you have no idea what you are looking at and the artist who drew it starts explaining (in hushed undertones) “this piece is a depiction of an innocent child in a meadow who is looking for meaning in his young life yet is confronted with confusion and darkness and does not know which way to turn…” All you see, of course, are some splotches of different random colors.
Anyways, she certainly had something in mind that she wanted to convey to us, and she simply did it in the way that she knew how.
And that sincerity and innocence was very touching to me.
It reminded me of a story I once heard about a simple shepherd. He did not know how to read, yet he had a strong desire to pray to G-d. When Rosh Hashanah came along he went to shul. While everyone else brought their prayer books, he brought his whistle that he would use to gather in his sheep. And when it came time to pray and everyone else recited the prayers of the service, he pulled out his whistle and began to blow it with tremendous fervor and concentration, all the while thinking of his own prayers in his mind.
As you can imagine, the congregants were shocked at this display of disrespect in the shul and wished to silence him. The rabbi, however, recognizing what was taking place, silenced them. “What G-d desires most from us is sincerity in our prayers. This shepherd’s whistle, while accompanying his sincere and heartfelt prayers, are worth more to G-d than the prayers we recite from our prayer books but with less concentration and meaning. Let him continue!”
I can relate to this story now. The “letter” that my daughter wrote to me was not special because of what it said, in fact it did not say anything. But it was meaningful because of the thought and sincerity that went into it.
We are only a few weeks away from Rosh Hashanah, a time when we will plead to G-d to grant us a happy and prosperous new year. Of course we need to learn how to pray to the best of our ability. We need to bring our prayer book to the synagogue with us (I don’t advocate blowing a whistle in the synagogue, although I’m sure Rabbi Koval will be understanding). But first and foremost, we must remember to bring our sincerity to the synagogue with us. That is truly the key to G-d’s heart.
We have a few weeks to work on focusing and preparing for this special day - let’s take advantage. Of course, if you need a break and are interested in watching some kids for a little bit give me a call. You might even learn a thing or two about aardvarks!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef
