frontlines
Snoring Ain't All Bad
S
ometimes the things you're looking for are right
in front of your nose ... literally. All you need to
do is see something out of its usual context in
order to develop a tiny appreciation for it.
Take, for instance, snoring. On its own, I can imagine
nothing more irritating. It's what rouses you from a sound
sleep only to have you see the culprit happily, if noisily, in
slumberland, enjoying the exact thing they've just stopped
you from enjoying. What's the positive in that?
Just the other night, my sweet new baby was crying. She's
taken to crying a lot precisely at the time when I'm try-
ing to put the older kids down to bed. I'll hustle
between one bed and the baby, then the next kid
and the baby again, all while my blood pressure
rises and my anxiety level is about to hit the roof,
which does nothing to calm the baby or to keep
anyone in bed.
The other day, I asked my husband to please
take the baby to another room, lock themselves
inside and let me take care of the other kids on
my own. Once the other kids were down for the
night, I tiptoed down to the baby's room and
peeked inside. There lay my husband, spread-
eagled on the bed, fast asleep, one hand holding
the sleeping baby to his chest. Aw. I watched a
moment and then my husband let out a deep
rumbling sn00000re. There was a two-second pause and
then another sound like a cross between a broken truck and
a wounded warthog. But did the baby wake up? No, she did
not!
Turns out a snoring parent is of deep comfort for new-
borns; perhaps it sounds like a broken white noisemaker
that they sell for $29.95 at Homedics, set on its highest
volume.
Just in case I wasn't yet 100 percent convinced
that snoring was worth the trouble, God gave me
JN CONTENTS
Oct. 10 - 16, 2013
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Situation No. 2. One afternoon, Binyamin disappeared.
Binyamin is 5 years old and ever since he became a big
brother has decided that he's as big as anyone else in the
house. He'll hop on over to wherever he pleases at any given
moment. So there he was, missing again. We'd been through
this before; we know what to do.
"You check the basement; I'll look outside," my
husband said. I went downstairs. No Binyamin.
I went back upstairs, confident my husband had
found him outside. I decided to enjoy the rare
occurrence of the empty house and settled down
with a magazine. Suddenly I felt the hair on my
arms stand on end. There was a low whistling.
I put down the magazine and listened. A low
rumble. Soft breaths. I followed the sound and
eventually found a rumpled blanket on the floor
in the corner.
Sure enough, there was Binyamin fast asleep.
Now imagine had he not been a snorer. We
would have been searching the whole neighbor-
hood needlessly. Thank God for his little 'I'm sleeping here'
sound bites. Reminds me of an old lady I met once who told
me she was so grateful that her husband snored because "I
don't even have to open my eyes to know where he is and
that he's still alive and kicking!"
So, there you go. When your significant other gets annoy-
ing, focus on the positive; don't let your nose get completely
out of joint. And if they have an irritating habit of breathing
loudly through their shnoz and waking you at bedtime, just
know... it's s'nore-mal. ❑
theJEWISHNEWS.com
6-12 Cheshvan 5774 Vol. CXLIV, No. 10
Arts/Entertainment ...41
Business
35
Business Memos
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28
Calendar
Community
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46
Food
Here's To
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Home
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Israel 5, 6, 30, 66
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Letters
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Life Cycles
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Next Generation
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Out & About
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Points Of View
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Staff Box/Phone List ...6
Synagogue List
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Torah Portion
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Columnist
Danny Raskin
Shabbat Lights
Shabbat: Friday, Oct. 11, 6:38 p.m.
Shabbat Ends: Saturday, Oct.12, 7:38 p.m.
Shabbat: Friday, Oct. 18, 6:27 p.m.
Shabbat Ends: Saturday, Oct.19, 7:27 p.m.
Times are from Yeshiva Beth Yehudah calendar.
48
•
?ditati?
When Alex Leve graduated from
Michigan State University, he didn't
see himself in the corporate world,
and he knew he wanted to own his
own company.
"I've always had big dreams,"
Alex said. "Between my schooling
and experience in the green
industry, and my work ethic, I
knew I would rather work for
myself than someone else."
Alex, and his brother Mitchell
partnered to do yard work, and
approached Hebrew Free Loan for
money to purchase equipment to
launch a full-service lawn business.
"I was almost taken aback,
because I thought the process
would be more difficult, like a
bank," Alex said, "but everyone
was so nice, and supportive of our
ambitions. They saw that we are
two local Jewish boys working
toward a goal, we don't shy away
from hard work, and they were
willing to listen."
The Leve brothers are focused
on growing their Oakland County
business, and through word of
mouth and support from their
landscaper father, they are busy
and enjoy what they're doing.
"We're making something of
ourselves, Alex said. "It feels as if
the Jewish community is behind us."
Click. Call. Give Now
www.hfldetroit.org
248.723.8184
Health. A fresh start.
A good education.
The next great business idea.
Hebrew Free Loan gives interest-
free loans to members of our
community for a variety of
personal and small business
needs. HFL loans are funded
entirely through community
donations which continually
recycle to others, generating
many times the original value
to help maintain the lives of
local Jews.
HEBREW
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October 10 • 2013
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