Did you ever say Lechaim using a spoon?

Did you ever say Lechaim using a spoon? I did.

This week I visited a neighborhood in the outskirts of Luzern, which reminded me of an interesting story that happened to me about 8 years ago, in the first year, after we moved to Luzern.

One Thursday morning, I get a phone call from an elderly lady, who spoke in English with a heavy German accent. She introduced herself and asked if I would kindly come over to her home, since she would like to talk to a Rabbi, and it is hard for her to leave her house.

We made up that I would come to visit her the next morning.

On Friday morning I show up at her door together with a guest of mine, who was visiting Luzern at the time, a young Yeshiva student, who had been my student a couple of years earlier at a summer camp in Michigan.

We go in to her home. A nice, simple home. Immediately I noticed something unusual. In the middle of her living room, there was a big TV screen, but next to it there was a small Aron Kodesh (Holy Ark) with an old Torah scroll inside. Later in our conversation, our host explained us that this was a family heritage, and since it wasn’t kosher enough anymore to be used in a synagogue, she kept it at home.

The kind woman invited us to sit down, and we started a very pleasant conversation for about fifteen minutes. She asked me to help her with a specific issue, so I wrote down the details and promised to take care of it.

Then I was ready to leave and started to get up from my seat to say goodbye, when she turned to me and asked: “Rabbi, please do a mitzvah.” I said, “of course, what can I do for you?”

She looked at me and said: “It has been years since someone said ‘Lechaim’ in my house. Would you please say a ‘Lechaim’?”

I smiled and said: “with pleasure, this is a very easy mitzvah”.

She went to the kitchen and came back with a tray, which had on it; a bottle of vodka, 2 small shot glasses and 2 teaspoons.

We poured some Lechaim into the glasses, and then she handed us the spoons. The Yeshiva student looked at me as if saying: What are we supposed to do we do with the spoon?

The woman tells us: “Nu, put the spoon in your glass and say ‘Lechaim’!”

The last time I had used a spoon was not exactly for vodka, but maybe something similar to ice cream. However, we didn’t have much of a choice. And so, I made the blessing, dipped my spoon into my glass, said ‘Lechaim’, gave the woman a blessing, and drank the vodka with the spoon.

She smiled and I think we made her very happy. We placed the spoons back on the tray, wished her Shabbat Shalom and said good bye.

I stayed in touch with her and not too long after our first meeting, she passed away.

During this same time period, I got a phone call from a young student (we will call him Benni) who asked me how he can get to know his Jewish religion a bit more. He comes from a Jewish family, but really does not know much at all about Judaism. And he would really like to get to know his roots.

I invited him to our home for Shabbat dinner that week.

As we were talking at the meal, I asked him, how he even heard about us? How did he get my phone number?

This is where he told me an amazing story. A couple of months back, as part of a school project he had to go around, knocking on people’s doors to offer them to join the insurance company which he worked for part time. So he came to one house on the outskirts of Luzern, and an elderly woman opened the door. He decided to ask her about the strange thing which was on the right side of her door. She explained to him, that she was Jewish and that this was a Mezuzah. This got him excited, and he told her, “I’m also Jewish!”

So she tells him, “That’s so nice, I’m sure you know the Rabbi.” “Well,” he said, “I actually do not know him, in fact, I don’t know any Jewish person in the area.”

She wrote down a phone number on a small piece of paper and told him to call the Rabbi, who will surely be happy to hear from him.

For weeks he hesitated, to call or not to call. In the end he called.

I asked Benni for the address of this woman, and it turns out, it was the same woman whom I met only a few months earlier.

So this is how we met Benni. For the first time in his life he saw Kiddush and Challah. It was actually the first time in his life where he sat together for dinner with other Jews and in a very Jewish setting.

We ended off the evening by saying ‘Lechaim’, this time without the help of a spoon.

Rivky and the children join me in wishing you Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Chaim