Dear all,
My most important meeting yesterday was when Maya and Eli came by Temple Akiba for a surprise visit. After raiding my candy jar, they found a small plastic children’s Torah.
As they unscrolled it, Maya asked, “Daddy, you wrote this, didn’t you?!”
”Um, no….” I responded.
”Then who wrote it?”
In that moment in time, I could have launched into a theological or spiritual or historical dissertation. All would have fallen flat. So I responded in a way that not only would resonate, but also might feed the imagination of these 5 year olds.
”Maya, and Eli, every day of your life, YOU are adding a page to our Torah. Your lives are the living story.”
I expected an “oh wow, daddy!”
But instead they responded, “Can we have more candy?”
Oh well! Perhaps, just perhaps they will think about this. But in the meantime, I hope that the interplay of Torah and sweetness will motivate them to keep exploring the answer!
Our lives truly can be a page of Torah. How will you live it?
With love and shalom,
Rabbi Zach Shapiro
