Jewish Moms' Blog - Chabad Jewish Center of Laguna Niguel

Sunday, December 27, 2009 - 12:30 AM

Hi there Dara I hope its allright
If I post my thoughts on the blog tonight
Of you and many others I'd like to speak
As I share mom to mom my experience this week
This message is for all of you
For all that you've done & continue to do...

There's an age old saying that most everyone knows
"It takes a village to raise a child" is basically how it goes
Well this week I discovered how true it is, and more -
The village that I live in is one that I adore
With a kick I didn't see coming I had landed in bed
My girls and I caught the flu-with aches from toe to head
Dad was out of town for a family celebration
So my Village Family rose to the occasion
The emails, thoughtful calls, they weren't merely polite
"Can I shop? Can I cook? How can make it right?"
"I'd be happy to drive dovi to catch the Irvine bus"
All without fanfare, attention or fuss
Groceries, supplies & medicine arrived at my door
If I asked for something, you brought me that, and more!
Books & videos for the kids, even flowers for me
"Can I come cook you chicken soup or make a pot of tea?"
Well by now I must admit it was getting hard to speak
(But not because of the fever that had made me weak)
I was left speechless by the genuine concern and care
The support & the love by my Family out here
I truly don't know what I would have otherwise done
Feeling so sick, with sick little ones
So now you know how I know, the age old saying's true
And why I feel blessed to be living in the same village as you.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you again
May we share in one another's healthy, happy occasions!

My Hamotzi Confession

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 9:44 AM

Please, come on in and have a seat! The wind is kicking up a bit today so I thought I would bring a Snuggie blanket for everyone. Here is a picture of the red one I chose especially for Lorraine and Kreine. They were both kind enough to leave comments on my last post so I wanted to reward them with this colorful Snuggie. The rest of us get to wear the plain blue ones.

Please feel free to leave any kind of comment on this blog. It’s easy to do and definitely appreciated. Plus, you never know when I will “gift” you a red Snuggie image of your own!

So for this post I wanted to continue on with the theme of prayer. Last week I talked about how choosing a prayer for our goldfish “funeral” inspired me to learn more about prayer. Today’s post (ahem, confession) is really about how I discovered that slowing down and paying attention to what words come out of my mouth can make my prayers even more powerful.

When my little guy was born he had an awful case of reflux and colic. He honestly cried/fussed for over 80% of the day and night. I am not exaggerating…it really was that bad. One night (or was it early, early morning??), after trying every lullaby from my “Mom Arsenal” and functioning on only a few hours of sleep, I began to cry along with my son. After a few minutes of wallowing in my own pity party, I wiped my eyes, re-swaddled my son and began to rock him again. For some reason I started to sing Hebrew songs I learned in camp. Much to my surprise, my son began to quiet down bit. Hoping to have hit the colic-cure jackpot, I started to sing every song and prayer I knew in Hebrew. When I came to the Hamotzi (the blessing over bread), my son completely stopped crying. The Hamotzi. Seriously. The blessing over bread soothed my child. Now here is where I had my “a-ha” moment. I grew up singing the “camp” version of the Hamotzi. It goes like this:

Hamotzi lechem min haaretz,

We give thanks to G-d for bread.

Our voices join in happy chorus

As our prayer is humbly said.

“Baruch atah ado-nai, elo-heinu melech haolam, hamotzi lechem min haaretz.” Ahhhhhhmen!

After singing the blessing over 20 times (ahhh, peaceful baby at last), I decided to slow down and listen to every word I sang. As it turns out, I had been singing the blessing like this, “…..as our prayer is humblese said.” Honestly, I had been singing it like that since I was in preschool.! Here’s what my thought process sounded like in my sleep deprived state. “Huh??? Who the heck is humblese? Is he part of the happy chorus? Is he in the Torah? Is humblese another word for G-d? Why is this so hard…..OH WAIT!!! Not humblese….it’s “humbly said”! And then I lost it. I started to laugh so hard that I had tears streaming down my cheeks. My calm baby started to fuss as my body was wracked with laughter. Enlightening moment for sure!

This week at our Soup, Salad and Soul luncheon, Kreine talked about the amazing power of Rachel’s and Leah’s prayers. It made me think about my night of “discovery” and how much more powerful my prayers could be if I slowed down and paid attention to what I was saying/singing. These days I find myself trying to quiet my mind as I pray. I’m not always successful, but I definitely feel the beauty of prayer at a different level now. How lucky I am to be on this fabulous journey of discovery. And as a side note: If you haven’t gone to one of the Soup, Salad, and Soul luncheons I highly recommend it! Kreine facilitates fascinating discussions and really highlights our roles as Jewish Women. Next one is scheduled for December 23^rd, 12:00pm!

My Village

My Hamotzi Confession