Yesterday, I was at the park with a friend. She mentioned that her daughter is part of a rotating group on Shabbat that babysits for a disabled child. In order to help the parents to get a break, they have set up a rotation and various 13 year old girls come by to babysit each week.
Beautiful.
“Wow,” I said. “How did that idea come about? It’s such a good one.”
And my friend said, “Oh take a guess which mom put it together.”
So I started naming names of amazing women who I know in the yishuv. She kept shaking her head. And then I said, “Really? This could be one of a hundred women here. There are so many people who could have started this.”
And she had to laugh. “Yeah, I was sure you would get that it was ——– who started it. But you’re right. Any one of the people whose names you just mentioned could just have likely have started it.”
In hindsight, after she told me who had organized this group it made perfect sense, but the amazing thing is that it could have been any of my friends or neighbors.
And it got me thinking.
I’m so blessed.
I live among giants. Not giants who stand out necessarily in a way that you would see from the outside; not people of great wealth, power or prestige (although we have some of those too).
No.
When you can rattle off a list of any number of women who might have started this chesed project (act of charity), then you know you’re living among the right role models.
And that is really what my life is all about here in the hills of Neve Daniel.
