{"id":1262,"date":"2017-11-21T23:11:20","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T04:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=1262"},"modified":"2017-11-21T22:52:02","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T03:52:02","slug":"sweet-memories-from-our-tutor-bonnie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=1262","title":{"rendered":"Sweet memories from our tutor, Bonnie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bonnie Meadow, our beloved tutor, shared these words with me as a comment from my previous post. \u00a0My thought is that her reflection warrants a post of its own. Thank you, Bonnie.<\/em><\/p>\n

Toldot will always be connected to Maya for me, as Beshalach will be connected to you, Elise. What a profound privilege it was for me to work with both of you, from Aleph-Bet, to the stories of Genesis, to Jewish and Hebrew concepts we discussed, and finally to the specific work of preparing for the B\u2019nei Mitzvah.<\/p>\n

When we were learning to read Hebrew, Maya danced circles around you, her young and quick mind a constant reminder to you of loss of nimbleness we experience as aging learners. But she would correct you with a loving smile, wait for you to catch up with patience and understanding belying her years, and help you practice the V\u2019Ahavtah and other blessings.<\/p>\n

A bond was formed between us that is unbreakable, eternal. I know that my link in that bond has allowed me to serve in a particular role in sustaining you, Elise, and for this I am forever grateful.<\/p>\n

The year following her Bat Mitzvah I asked Maya if she would be willing to read a few lines of Torah for the Rosh Hashanah service, as I had taken on the role of seeing that the readings were all covered. Her answer was that she would do it if I needed her. In other words it wasn\u2019t something she really wanted to take on (for readers of this blog: we use a different set of chanting melodies on the High Holidays, so it is not a simple task even for those who have already chanted from Torah) but for me she would do it. I got back to her after I had tried to assign verses to everyone I had access to, and told Maya I needed her. She readily replied that she would do it \u2013 if I helped. Well, of course I welcomed one more chance to go to the home where I had taught both Maya and Elise for a couple of years, to work with Maya on those verses. As was our routine, Maya made me a cup of Bengal Spice tea, also now eternally connected to her, and we went to work.<\/p>\n

Like the trooper she was, Maya stood next to me at the Torah that Rosh Hashanah and chanted like a champion. I don\u2019t know which of us appreciated that the other was at our side more\u2026Once again, I beamed with pride at my student\u2019s accomplishment. I did not know that day would be the last time I was to be with Maya in life. I recall it each year on Rosh Hashanah, and Elise honored that moment last year when she chanted those same verses by my side on the holiday.<\/p>\n

Selfless, selfish- inseparable opposites, as \u2013 it seems \u2013 are the many opposites we need to somehow hold inside us at once: our grief at our loss of this beautiful joy of a person, and our love and appreciation for all the gifts that she continues somehow to give us\u2026It\u2019s the Balance of Things, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

More love than I can express,
\nBonnie<\/p>\n

Again, thank you, Bonnie, in more ways than I can express. <\/em><\/p>\n

And a quick P.S.\u00a0 I chanted again that very passage during Rosh Hashana, this year, under a different “tent” with the Kol Hai community.\u00a0 This year, I added the line that I could not chant last year.\u00a0 One translation is, \u201cand Abraham was grieving greatly, the loss of his son.\u201d\u00a0 As I said in my last entry, we don\u2019t find the Torah passages, they find us. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bonnie Meadow, our beloved tutor, shared these words with me as a comment from my previous post. \u00a0My thought is that her reflection warrants a post of its own. Thank you, Bonnie. Toldot will always be connected to Maya for me, as Beshalach will be connected to you, Elise. What a profound privilege it was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripples-pearls-from-others"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p720L0-km","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1263,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions\/1263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}