The Texans Who Came for Rosh Hashana
A few weeks ago a Christian woman from Houston Emailed to ask if she and some family and friends could come to us for a meal over Rosh Hashana. I was contemplating the nicest way to respond “No,” when I read a few more lines and was intrigued to hear that she and her husband have been celebrating Rosh Hashana for around 20 years already, and they were eager to experience a traditional Jewish Rosh Hashana meal.
So that was how we ended up hosting 5 Texans for lunch today. And this was the incredible story that Connie, an extremely lovely and sincere mom of 2 and real-estate agent, shared with us.
“When my husband and I first married, I was a kindergarten teacher at a Christian school. I didn’t like how the holidays had become so commercialized, Easter had become all about the Easter Bunny, Christmas had become all about presents. I wanted to add some spirituality into the yearly cycle, so I decided to teach the kids about the Jewish holidays.
“I made some mistakes in the beginning. For example, I lit a menorah with the kids on Rosh Hashana. But then I discovered Chabad.org [she pronounced the first two letters like the first two letters of “Cheese”], and I starting learning about the Jewish holidays and teachings my students about Passover and Succot and Hannukah.
“When my oldest child was born, I stopped teaching. But when he was around 5 years old and my daughter was 3, I decided to take the materials I had made for my students out of the attic, and use them with the family.
“For Rosh Hashana I would print up the checklist of the different special foods. Every year we eat the apple with honey. And dates. And carrots.
“But it’s hard to find leeks, so every year we eat cabbage instead” the husband said with a laugh.
Needless to say, we Weisbergs were amazed.
The conversation wandered from the red heifers discovered in Texas, to Texas possibly seceding from the United States, to fishing in the Sea of Galilee (Connie’s husband owns a fishing-gear business).
Towards the end of our meal together, Connie asked my husband, “Rabbi, can I ask you about the Shemita year? I noticed that this year our garden didn’t do well. And my business was more slow than usual. I thought that made sense, since it was the Sabbatical year.”
“But this year, the 8th year, God promised a double blessing!”
What a wonderful view of this coming year, I thought.
May Hashem bless Connie and her family and all of us this coming year with a double blessing! Texas-sized🙌
