My Babies Grown Big
This morning I was at my health fund and noticed a young mom with a newborn waiting for the pediatrician. Has it really been 24 years, I marveled, since I was the one sitting there, the first-time mom waiting outside of the office of that same pediatrician. I remember that, for some reason, I’d had to leave a note in an envelope for that doctor and writing on it: “From Hadas Weisberg’s Mother.” It had felt equal parts jarring and stunning to write that. I was no longer just me, I was the mother of…
Seeing that young mother this morning gathering up her infant in a thin blanket, I suddenly thought of my own no-longer-babies and what they are up to nowadays. My daughter who works at a live-in program for teenagers following psychiatric hospitalization. Another daughter who leads Israeli 11th graders on an “Israeli Journey,” an intense examination and deepening of their identity as Israelis and Jews. Another daughter who is serving 2-plus years guarding Israel in the Israeli Air Force. Another who is a dedicated youth-group counselor, and is volunteering this week caring for newborn farm animals. Another, our oldest son, who spends many hours a day in yeshiva engaged in Torah learning.
Thinking of my own babies grown big, it seems ironic to me that so many people are sure that having babies is bad for the world when there are few things a person can do that have greater potential to make the world a better place.
This is so true. I believe that Rabbi Avigdor Miller used to say that we need to make sure a place is better after we have been there. That is true for how we raise our children with hard work and prayers that the world should be a better place for their being there. When people say they aren’t going to have children because that is a selfish activity, they are missing out on what their role is. It isn’t breeding, it is a calling.