Rosh Chodesh Kislev 5765

Sara with Malchut

Shalom to all!! I hope everyone’s well. We are all fine here, waiting for winter to kick in, while still wearing our summer clothes!

Time just flies by, and I hardly finish one Shabbat, and the next one is in the wings. What with school, the kids, a nursing baby and numerous other things, (did I mention that I’m sleep deprived?!) I barely register the weeks racing along!

I’ll start with the most recent. My second youngest, Yeshurun, has just turned three. There is a custom to let the boys’ hair grow until the age of three, and only then to cut it. So... my little one had his birthday on Thursday. We’ve been planning to do this ceremony in Kever Yosef, but what with the arch terrorist dying etc it doesn’t seem likely that there’ll be an entry there in the next couple of weeks.
Therefore we decided to do it at home, and the next time we can go to Kever Yosef, we’ll take our newly shorn son there. He looks so cute now – he received a blessing from his Rabbi, who is also a Kohen, so that was really special. Rav Felix cut off his first curl, Yeshurun received his Tzitzit (ritual garment with fringes), and my baby has grown up!!

We’ve had a lot of natural growth in Elon Moreh lately. I have to tell you about one very busy Shabbat.
As you know, I have a four and a half month old baby. She’s totally dependent on nursing, so not only do I run off to nurse her during my breaks in school (thereby forfeiting my breaks!), but I also haven’t gone back to full ambulance duties, as I can only go out if Malchut has just eaten. I’ve been called out a couple of times for labouring mothers, but it’s always worked out fine with the baby.

Well, one Shabbat there were two Friday night events. Two different people stopped me in the street and asked me to be ready to go out in the ambulance with their wives if they would need so, stating that “at the moment there’s nothing going on.” Famous last words. One of them was a woman who gave birth in the ambulance three years ago, and I know that her births are really quick. So, I went home, and prepared the baby’s car seat and bag so that if I’d have to go out with Malchut, everything would be ready.

At 01.05 the husband, also an ambulance driver, called me and said that his wife had just woken him up with contractions. I asked how far apart they were, and he said every minute! I raced over there (Malchut had exactly finished a feed), and she decided that she wanted to give birth at home, instead of in the ambulance. We got the “delivery room”, aka her bedroom, ready, and she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. After that I got home at 03.40, and went to bed at around 04.00.

At 05.20 the other woman who was due to give birth rang me and asked me if I could go with her to hospital. I said that it was fine, but I had to nurse Malchut first, and could she please wait for a few minutes!! Off we went to hospital, and I arrived home at eight o’clock in the morning. Talk about a busy night!

Not only did these women give birth so close to each other, but obviously G-d wanted me to go back to full ambulance duties! Anyway, that week there were four births, three of which were to ambulance drivers. I thank G-d that I was so involved in bringing forth life, and not, G-d forbid, anything else.

As you may know, today is the first day of the month of Kislev. This month has the festival of Chanuka, which commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks, and the Jewish culture over the Greek. May this be a sign and a symbol for the strengthening of the Jewish people, and may G-d give us the power to preserve our Homeland, and crush the serpent of terrorism once and for all. I pray that we should have only good news to give you all!
Shalom
Sara

© Copyright 5764, 5765 by author and Tsel Harim

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