Angels at the Shabbat Table

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

~Albert Einstein

 

It is a miracle that I am now living in West Rogers Park IL--the village with a Synagogue on every other block. There was no obvious Christmas here in West Rogers Park; but wow, there sure was a Hanukkah! Residents down my block felt safe enough to decorate their houses with Hanukkah decorations and for miles there were lighted menorot in almost everyone's front window.

Christmas vs. Hanukkah? Not a fight I choose to get into. Craig Taubman put it like this: "Jews don’t celebrate Christmas, but there’s nothing Jewish about hating Christmas. Or Christians or Muslims, or people who are less observant or more observant. I see little value in sameness and even less value in baseless hatred. Practice tolerance."

But it is sure good to live in an area that respects Hanukkah and where we are not a minority. Jewish Orthodox Black Hats walk freely down the street here, and I can dress in a tallit katan and a kippah without looking strange or feeling out-of-place.

I am living in a residency that serves only certified kosher foods--all foods in my home are kosher with no exceptions. We have either a dairy meal or a meat meal and they are never served together. The grocery stores in West Rogers Park carry all sorts of certified kosher foods in abundance. I never made it to Israel but I made it here to West Rogers Park IL.! This village is like a "Little Israel" in the USA. My Grandma Celia and Aunt Clara were residents of West Rogers Park also. I remember coming here as a child to visit them, but never thought I would be living here someday too. You just have got to do what you  need to do.

Come to visit the famed West Rogers Park IL. You will be treated as an angel at the Shabbat table!