Grasping My Father's Kiddish Cup

I was in Israel, sent there on assignment
he cup I
never want- to write columns about the illusory
ed to own I Oslo Accord in 1993.
I attended services at the Reform
now sits in
seminary in Jerusalem and then sat
our dining room cabi-
down to a communal dinner there. I
net.
cannot
remember if they served salad or
It was made by a sil-
not.
versmith somewhere in
I've got to confess, since this is the
Eastern Europe —
GEORGE
maybe Warsaw, maybe I s eason for confession, that I was once
CANTOR
s orely tempted to miss another part of
Vilna or Minsk —
Reality Check
the High Holidays.
during the 1880s and
I was a baseball writer in 1968 and
has been passed down
the Tigers were the biggest story in
to the eldest son in our family ever
town, the biggest story I had ever cov-
I since. My great-grandfather, a chazzan.
ered. The first game of the World
in Lithuania, bought it and now it
Series would match Denny McLain
belongs to me.
against Bob
.For my entire life, it
was the Kiddush cup my
Gibson, regard-
1 father drank from as he
ed as the two
made the blessing over the
best pitchers in
the game. It
wine on the holidays. He
died in June, and now I
would fall on
will hold it in my hand
Yom Kippur.
and recite the prayers
Another
when we sit down for our
Jewish writer
Rosh Hashanah meal.
urged me to go
In my father's house,
to St. Louis. He
there were certain cus-
said that he
toms about this meal. No
intended to stay
horseradish would be
in his hotel all
served with the gefilte fish
morning, walk
because there should be
to the stadium
no hint of bitterness for -
and refrain from
the new year.
eating. But that
There was also no salad
wouldn't do it
for me.
served at the meal. I never
could figure out why and
The tempta-
he never really gave me a
tion lasted all of
good answer. Instead, he
five seconds and
told a story about a little
was then discard-
ed.
shul. Whenever the Torah
was taken from the ark
Instead, on
and carried into the con-
Yom Kippur
gregation, everyone would The inherited cup I'll use to bless
night, I flew into
the new year. Staff photo by Angie Baan
bow when they reached a
St. Louis and cov-
certain point.
ered the rest of the
series.
Why did they do that?
Because I knew what my father
No one had an answer, so they went
would have said if I had left before that,
and asked the aged retired rabbi. "In
and I did not want to face his disap-
our old shul," he explained, "there was
proval.
a low ceiling and when you got to that
Now he is gone, the one man whose
point, everyone had to duck."
approval I had always sought, and the
I suspect that was the case with the
first holiday arrives without him.
salad prohibition, too. Maybe some
But his Kiddush cup already has been
dressing had gone bad one time or
put to use. At my daughter's wedding
other during the last century and every-
in August, she and her new husband
: one decided they could do without.
held it to their lips and drank as they
The only time I ever had to miss one
completed their vows.
of these meals, I had a good excuse. I
As for now, it is in our dining room
George Cantor, a West Bloomfield
cabinet. My link to the past, my bond
resident, is a native Detroiter and
with the future. ❑
longtime Detroit journalist.

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