Rabbi’s Musings & Amusings

 I have never been good with names or faces. I joke that my wife never forgets a face, and I never remember one. So, while she will meet a woman and recognize her from kindergarten, I will meet a student and not be able to remember why he looks familiar (Well, not that bad, but close).

During our children’s midwinter break this week, we enjoyed an overnight trip at a hotel in the Pocono Mountains.

 This past Friday, our Shabbos guest pulled up in front of our house an hour and a half before Shabbos. He parked a bit awkwardly in the street because of the high mounds of snow pushed to the side of the road. He closed the car’s doors and came into the house carrying a bunch of bags. When he went back out to park the car for Shabbos, he realized that he didn’t have the key. It’s a remote key, so it doesn’t get inserted into the ignition. As long as the key is somewhere in the car, the car will start. The fact that the car wasn’t starting meant that the key wasn’t anywhere in the car either. He looked under the car, then retraced his steps into the house, and looked in all the locations where he had been, but the key wasn’t anywhere to be found.

Last week, the article I sent, entitled, “The Constitution of Children at the Shabbos Table,” seems to have really resonated. I was gratified that it was read and forwarded many times. I also received numerous comments in response, the most common of which was, “Do you have a video camera in our house on Shabbos? How do you know about all the stuff that happens in our house on Shabbos?”

I have a hobby of collecting newspapers that contain memorable headlines. So, when major events occur, I buy the next day’s paper and add it to my collection. I have newspapers from when the last few presidents won elections, when President Clinton was impeached, the day after 9/11 (September 12, 2001), when President Trump was impeached (both times), and some papers after worthwhile teams I root for won a championship.

We, the “United Children At the Shabbos Table” (U-CAST), in order to form a more perfect Shabbos table, establish our rights, ensure (what we consider to be) domestic tranquility, provide for our common defense from parental demands, promote our general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our siblings, do ordain and hereby establish this Constitution of the Shabbos Table: