My two oldest boys go to school 45 minutes south of our house in a program that I’ve written about a few times called Sussya. It’s a magical place that places a great deal of emphasis on molding the boys into upstanding, thoughtful, generous people. At the same time, they teach the kids all about Jewish history and modern Zionism by exploring the Land.
This Friday, Yehuda’s weekly trip took them to Gush Etzion. So the evening before, each kid called his parents to tell them that the kids would be available to say hi for 15-20 minutes…and could we please bring some goodies. We’ve been doing this for two years already with Matan, so we know how to grab the moments when we get them and how to bring treats for the kids. But with Matan’s class, we have a Whatsapp group (of course) so that the parents who live in the Gush can coordinate what to bring and when.
We don’t have such a group with the new ninth graders, so I was in the dark about how much to buy…and of what. I bought enough treats for each kid to have one pastry and a cup of juice, and I certainly hoped that other parents would be bringing more treats.
When we arrived, we were the first parents on the scene, and the kids quickly starting to gobble the goodies that we had brought. We were standing a bit away from the kids, talking to Yehuda’s teacher and I started to get nervous.
“Oy,” I said to Rav R. “I didn’t bring enough. And now the kids are going to be hungry.”
And in perfect fashion, he said, “No! It’s great that there isn’t enough.”
I looked at him like he was crazy.
“Listen, Romi! This is how the kids learn to share. They look at the bourekas, and they realize there isn’t quite enough and they think about how to divide it up, and what to do. It’s perfect.”
As I stood there, obviously doubting what he was saying, Rav R. continued, “No really,” he said with a huge grin. “I love when there is only one candy left in the house and I give it to one of the kids. She has to look at it and figure out how to divide it with her sister. This is what life is all about.”
And then a few more parents showed up with goodies and he said, “See! They came just as the kids finished your treats. And now the new treats will taste even better to them since they had just a taste of yours. The timing is perfect.”
It’s incredibly humbling to be among people who have such good hearts and such positive attitudes. I notice a similar thought-process among many of the teachers in their school.
I have so many lessons to learn from an attitude like this one. And I can only marvel that these are the types of giants among whom, and from whom, I have my boys learning.
Lessons learned at the Lone Tree boureka stop.
These are life lessons, that last!!