OCTOBER 7 • 2021 | 9

pastrami still goes best on rye,
as time goes by.
”
We also began creating
some new traditions in our
home. At a talk for parents
of bnai mitzvot, a rabbi gave
some simple but great advice
about creating a more Jewish
home on Shabbat: “Just do
something.
” So, we started
singing a few prayers and
lighting Shabbat candles. Bim
bom, Shabbat shalom, and
prayers over wine and challah
made a difference.
My wife and I joined a
Temple Israel chorus, lovingly
led by Cantor Neil Michaels,
giving us something we could
do together, she as an alto
and I as a baritone. Singing
cemented our involvement
at temple and helped make
Kabbalat Shabbat services feel
more meaningful and spiri-
tual. And even when COVID
prevented us from attending
services, we could still listen
and sing on Zoom from our
kitchen table.

FULL CIRCLE
Skipping ahead many years, I
recall how singing helped us
feel connected with our aging
parents. Leslie’s father and
my mother had passed away,
which left my mother-in law,
Eileen, and my dad, Leon, as
the matriarch and patriarch
of our family. And when we
got together, after dinner, we
often got out song sheets from
their era, and I improvised the
chords and we found out what

“oldies but goodies” really
meant! And when Leon and
then Eileen each gradually
reached the waning days of
their lives, we sang with them
and to them at their bedsides.
So, what goes around does
come around. Leslie singing
to our grandchildren and at
her mom’s bedside. My mom,
instilling the joy of singing
within me, which I then
passed forward to my kids and
grandkids (and anyone else
who will listen to my songs).
Singing at the seder with those
old tunes to maintain the fam-
ily traditions. My grandson
learning to play the guitar and
singing Beatles songs with me.
My granddaughter singing
sweetly in musicals and in the
temple youth choir.
Hopefully, next Pesach,
Papa and Grandma will kvell
as one of our younger family
members dares to ask the
Four Questions for the first
time. And, many years from
now, I can only hope that my
grandchildren will remember
their papa singing songs I
wrote especially for them on
each of their birthdays. And
when they recall our family
singing together at the seder
table, maybe at least one of
my grandchildren will show
one of their children the only
proper (Eisenberg) way to sing
“
Adir Hu” (after the men fin-
ish washing the dishes)!

Dr. Jeff London is a retired child

psychiatrist from Farmington Hills.

“MANY YEARS FROM NOW,
I CAN ONLY HOPE THAT MY
GRANDCHILDREN WILL REMEMBER
THEIR PAPA SINGING SONGS
I WROTE ESPECIALLY FOR THEM
ON EACH OF THEIR BIRTHDAYS.”

C
l
i
c
k. C
a
ll. G
i
v
eN
o
w
.
www.hfldetroit.org • 248.723.8184

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