Yesterday, I played the Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack in the car with Ruby for the first time. I was pleased to discover that she enjoyed the melodies, immediately singing along to every “lai lai lai,” and the lyrics led to many interesting questions and conversations.
In the first song, “Tradition,” the people of Anatevka ask their rabbi: “Is there a blessing for the Czar?” (and he hilariously replies with “May God bless and keep the Czar – far away from us!”). Ruby wondered aloud: “What’s a Czar?” And after explaining the joke to her, she said to me, “Ima, I think there is a Jewish blessing for everything.” How wise our children are, and how true—our tradition teaches us from our earliest years to open our eyes to the blessings all around us, even during difficult times.
On Friday, we will mark the beginning of this new month, Rosh Chodesh Sivan, and the beginning of our summer season. School will be out for most, the weather will become sweltering, many of us will travel, and we’ll all seek the cool inside and the shade outside of our homes. Our liturgy offers blessings for changes we experience and miracles we witness, as well as a blessing for each new month. In addition, I also love this poem from Beth Kander-Dauphin, a staff member at the Institute of Jewish Spirituality, who was inspired by the same scene in Fiddler to name the many blessings that summer specifically offers us.
Wishing you a chodesh tov, a sweet summer season, and a healthy and happy new week.
— Cantor Emma Lutz
A Blessing for Summer by Beth Kander-Dauphin
For the lengthening of days, stretching sunshine far past its winter bedtime,
For the bright blues and vibrant green and pops of color filling the warm world,
For the unrelenting humidity that reminds us to savor the sweetness of cooler breezes,
For all the sounds of summer – the jingling of ice cream trucks, joyful shouts of children splashing, lingering laughter over meals shared on patios, the shuddering clap of thunderstorms demonstrating something more powerful than us,
For summer camps and vacations and time spent outside,
For good AC when we’re stuck indoors,
For sun,
For shade,
For all these things and more, we thank You.
And may God bless and keep the mosquitoes… far away from us.
Amen.