3 weeks to aliyah – Pesach for a Month

I am writing this at the end of a long day, with my PC precariously perched on my aching knees. The house looks so empty even though it is filled from floor to ceiling with boxes. Most of our lifetime possessions have been carefully wrapped up, boxed and labeled and are ready to be loaded on the container tomorrow.

The planning for this was meticulous. What do we need for the next 3 weeks here and for the week after our arrival in Israel? Whatever we hold onto had better fit in our luggage or be disposed of, but whatever we send on the lift had better be something we can do without (like chairs, tables, blankets and beds). It seemed rather like preparing for Pesach, but this Pesach was going to be a month long and we had to separate not only our food and dishes but everything in our house. Not an easy task.

Pearl and I walked through the house when the movers left, assessing what is complete and what still needs to be done. Pearl took pictures and I marveled at seeing corners of the house that I have not been able to see in close to 27 years. It was bittersweet. I can’t help but reflect back on a time about 20 years ago after my father passed away when my mother decided to pack up and sell our family house in Maryland and move up to a small apartment in NY.

Granted, my mother’s 4 sons all lived far from her – two in the Philly area, one in NJ and me in NY. She was selling a beautiful house in a lovely, tree filled neighborhood and moving to a small, old apartment in a dirty city. She was going to have to start paying rent and get around in unfamiliar surroundings without the benefit of a car for the first time in decades. I thought that she would never pull it off when she first told me about it, but she did it and made the best of her new life by attending courses in Brooklyn College and participating in a few neighborhood groups. She tried every restaurant that she could on my restaurant website (http://www.nachas.org/BethYehuda/kosher.html ) and gave me her reviews practically on a daily basis.

Yet, it saddened me and my brothers to see her give up the comfort and security of a house that she and my father lived in for 27 years (funny how that is how long we lived here…). After today, I now appreciate a little more how our children are feeling about us selling this house.

The circumstances of my mother’s move and ours could not be further apart. Pearl and I are finally realizing a dream that we have had for over 35 years. I am embarking on a new adventure with my best friend. We are not moving into a drab, old space rather into a beautiful house that we plan on making into our new home. We are not preparing for the end of our lives, rather for a new start. This is exciting and fulfilling, adventurous and bold. We are beginning a new phase of our lives together and we could not be happier about it. I hope that our children will come to see it that way as well.

It is a little sad and scary to give up this house that we lived in all of these years. We threw away a lot of junk that was weighing us down. Sometimes you have to take on some risk in order to make some major strides forward. “To make an omelet you have to break a few eggs”. We are hoping to make one amazing omelet.