Mazal tov to Michal and Corey!
This morning Josh and I attended the bris of Gavriel Shalom, the firstborn child of a couple very dear to our hearts, Corey and Michal Gold.
We first met Corey when he was Josh’s student around 10 years ago at the Orayta Yeshiva. And over the past decade Josh and I have had the honor of watching Corey progress from being an 18-year-old yeshiva student, to a Harvard student spending his vacations learning in Israel, to a college graduate working and learning Torah in Jerusalem .
And then, the exciting news. Corey was getting married to Michal! We loved Michal right away, and saw she was perfect for Corey. And then more exciting news, Michal was expecting!
It moved me deeply this morning to see this profoundly sincere, idealistic, and soulful young couple starting a family.
And knowing that IY”H this is just the beginning of their parenting journey.
On the way home from the bris, Waze took me by the apartment where Josh lived when we were dating and engaged. On Shayarot Street in Katamon. When we were still dating, Josh took a few pomegranate seeds and planted them in the ground by his building. By the time we got engaged, those seeds had sprouted, bright green, a few inches tall. When we got married, we left Katamon, and I completely forgot about those pomegranate sprouts, until several years later, when we already had a small crowd of kids, Josh told me that he had walked by his old apartment, and seen that a mighty tree had grown from those sprouts.
This morning, as I do every time I pass by Josh’s old apartment, I peeked out the car window to see how our tree is doing. And I saw that it had grown even taller and the trunk thicker than the last time I’d seen it, and bursting all over with bright orange-red flowers.
Seeing that tree, I was reminded of my intense prayers for Corey and Michal and Gavriel Shalom at that morning’s bris: that Corey and Michal and their firstborn son, together, will be showered with Hashem’s blessings in every possible way.
And that their family tree will thrive, becoming tall and wide and reaching higher and higher. As their family grows and they grow, together. Mazal tov! Mazal tov!
