A Sought After Prize

Due to getting older and becoming less energetic than in the past, there were many things that didn’t get cleaned and organized before Pesach. As you know, the pre-Pesach cleaning frenzy is not all about halacha. Admit it; the great majority of it is what is termed spring cleaning. There isn’t much of a chance of finding cookies in your bathroom cabinet or a sandwich in the cabinet over the fridge which you can only gain access to by a ladder.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a clean and orderly home. It is a wonderful feeling to have one’s home in that state. It’s just that I have to set priorities. Our daughter-in-law Aliza and son Natanel welcomed their first daughter, after three sons, and so helping them out, with drives to the Shomron, cut down on my Pesach cleaning. Then, about a month after birth, Aliza needed to undergo an emergency, middle-of the-night appendectomy. So I spent time in the hospital with her, as well as visited and helped out in their home in Maaleh Shomron, right next to Karnei Shomron (where they had rented a tiny mobile home and then an apartment). Baruch Hashem that I had my priorities in order!

My pre-Pesach cleaning team consisted of me; my husband who has back problems; and our youngest, Yisrael Meir, who had time off from nursing school. (Once he asked me, “Ima, what are you going to do when I am married?” I responded, “I’ll have to get (paid) cleaning help.”) Still, the majority of the work fell on my shoulders. That’s when I came up with the plan.

I decided that I would endeavor, on a weekly basis, to clean something that I hadn’t succeeded in conquering before Pesach. I actually succeeded initially and took some first steps the week that Pesach ended. I took everything off the two top shelves of a large cabinet in our bedroom. I call them my present shelves. Whenever I find something that a family member would be happy to receive for a birthday, anniversary, graduation, birth of a new baby, bar/bat mitzvah, etc. gift, I purchase it if possible. I have purchased loads of new items at second-hand stores, house sales, various stores, Emunah Women’s “white elephant” sales and so on.

After finishing my present shelves, I ended up knowing what is on each shelf, and the baby and children’s clothing is arranged neatly according to male/female and size. I even found an adorable cotton dress which will fit one of our granddaughters. I am a big believer in getting rid of things, so I gave away some new picture frames.

The following week I completed the job by attacking the remaining three shelves with a light orange American dust cloth. (Does anyone, other than I still utilize those yellow or orange cloths?) There were many memories on those shelves which hadn’t been awakened for years. I spent time reading articles of mine from when I was in high school and at college. I got re-acquainted with various memo pads and notebooks with notes from shiurim that I had attended. I still have them, because how can I part with them? I had written many things down from such wise Jews. I also came across some material about first aid, including notes from courses that I had taken. Some of it, is out-of-date, but it does contain some vital info which I need to peruse.

One of the shelves is home to my doll and stuffed animal collection, as well as my sister Naomi’s collection. (She passed away in 1981.) My Mattie Mattel doll has been silent for decades, but I pulled the string on my sister’s Sister Bell, and it still talks! One of the three sentences that Sister Bell still says is “I love you!” As I write these words I wonder if Hashem sent me these words from my dear sister, z”l.

What really drew my attention and got me thinking was the trophy that I extricated. It was made from plastic, with a black stand and a golden cup perched on top, and an off-white plastic piece inserted in the middle of the base which proclaims, “Phillip W. Roth Memorial Award, IBZA, 1969-70.” IBZA stands for Israel Ben Zion Academy, or the UHI, United Hebrew Institute, the Hebrew day school that I and my six siblings attended.

So why did I receive this approximately 5½ by 5 inch trophy? My trophy certainly did not compare to the mammoth trophies that were on display at the bowling alley of my local JCC (Jewish Community Center). But my trophy is much more meaningful than trophies awarded for physical feats.

Drum roll… I received the trophy for…. shul attendance. Every Monday morning my teacher would call out the name of each student in my class, prefacing this with the query, “Who went to shul on Shabbos?” I well remember Penina, whose parents were sabras, answering with an Israeli accented “Ken,” like the male Barbie doll. Randy, who lived across the street from the minyan, which was in my Hebrew Day School’s auditorium, had it easy. She just had to roll out of bed, get dressed, and she was at shul in fifteen seconds.

On the other hand, there was me. I lived far from the minyan, with my home approximately a mile and a half away. Like the postman, neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail kept me from walking to shul. I remember, as a little girl, walking to shul with my sister and one of my brothers. Due to the high snow, one of my boots got stuck in the snow and when I tried to take another step, I discovered that my boot had been left behind.. My “helpful” brother just continued walking and my sister came to the rescue!

What complicated matters is that there was no eiruv in our town. For me that meant that even if I had a bad cold (Is there a good cold?), I could not place tissues in my pocket. That was quite the Divine test for a young kid. Once, when I was about halfway to shul I really needed a tissue, and so I knocked on the door of a Jewish, frum family and asked for a tissue.

While the coveted plastic trophy may have been the initial catalyst for my shul attendance, Baruch Hashem, I eventually attended shul for holier reasons!

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