When Josh and I were engaged, Josh met an artist at a Jewish art fair and came home raving about her beautiful work. After speaking with her, we decided to have her design a custom, one-of-a-kind chuppah for us. Thirty years later, the chuppah has traveled from various apartments in Potomac, Maryland, to our first home there, and then around the world to our home in Israel. It has always been displayed in a prominent location in the house. In our early years of marriage, we dreamed that we would have someone write in the names of our children and their spouses as they got married, and we left three spaces that we assumed would be filled with this mission.
Little did we know….
When Matan and Adi got engaged, we started brainstorming what to do. How would we fit the names (bh) of all six sons and their wives on the chuppah? Who would we get to paint on the fabric? It took me many months, and many false starts, before I realized that I already knew the perfect artist for the project – Yael Resnick.
Yael took on the project with gusto, even while navigating the plans for her own daughter’s wedding. The trickiest part (well, there were many) was that we live about 1.5 hours from each other, and the time started running down without a chance for Yael to see the chuppah. With a leap of faith, I told her that we could do this sight unseen! I took a series of pictures, measured the space where I assumed the names would go (and I may be the least exact person on the face of the planet), and prayed. Yael sent me many of her brainstorms, and together (with some help from the chattan and kallah) we created a small strip that we will attach to our chuppah for the ceremony – and then frame on its own to be part of Matan and Adi’s home.
We had a terrible day today, as a beloved son of the neighborhood, Harel Birenstock, fell in battle in Lebanon, leaving behind parents, 4 siblings, a wife and 4 children; leaving behind countless friends and multiple communities in mourning. The funeral was unbearable.
And then, this afternoon, after the funeral, I knew that I needed something life-affirming, something that would raise our spirits and be a part of the building of our people. Yael managed to finish the project right as her daughter was getting married; she sent it to Jerusalem with her husband and put it in the hands of someone in Efrat. And I had the honor of picking it up, holding my breath as I waited to see if my measurements were accurate (they were!) and celebrating this step towards our son’s wedding; this life-affirming step that will see this beautiful, sweet couple set out on their own path to build a family in Eretz Yisrael and as part of Am Yisrael.
Who could ever have imagined this chuppah, created for us in Potomac, Maryland, would make its way to Israel and enable us to stand under it yet again, 30 years later, as we usher our oldest into his new life?
May the joy overpower the sorrow. May we always remember those who have fallen for us so that we may continue living here and building our lives.
And may Matan and Adi know only joy as they start their lives under our chuppah (and now their’s too) in ten days.
