You are Invited

Abraham and Sarah, and Laban happily invite you to the wedding of our children, Issac the Righteous and Rebbecca the Beautiful and the Brilliant

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Raphaela's teacher utilizes an experiential model, involving the children in recreations of Biblical events in order to fully absorb the stories and the messages.  In introducing the first forefather, Abraham, they constructed a giant Bedouin-style tent in one corner of the classroom, including sheep and goats standing outside, and with a complete set of dishes so that the children could invite in "guests", just like Abraham.  For the birth and circumcision of Issac, they hosted a Brit Milah party in the aforementioned tent, and they had the Gan children help in the food preparation.

Now, for Issac and Rebbecca's wedding, they have asked the children to design a wedding invitation.  Raphaela and I sat together last night, with me helping write some of the more complicated Hebrew words and Raphaela decorating the invitation accordingly.

I thought I would be clever, and at the bottom of the invitation I wrote, "Time of Ceremony:  Jewish Time.  Ashkenazim, 5 pm and Sephardim 3:30 pm." (Referring to the fact that weddings in Israel begin chronically late, and that Sephardi weddings more so that Ashkenazi family weddings tend to be delayed by three hours or more.)

I have received actual wedding invitations that specify different times for the various relatives in the family.

Ha ha!  Except that it started to niggle at me; what if a parent or staff person at the Gan read it and became offended, which is something I certainly did not intend?

The more the thought settled into the back of my brain, the more I realized I could not ignore my gut feeling.  I had Raphaela cover over that bit of text with stickers and drawings, and started breathing normally again.

I have learned in life that if my Inner Voice is screaming, there's a reason, and I will only get into more trouble and regret if I ignore it.