Legacy

Elisheva had already let her parents know that she fully expected to be a bit mortified when she brought home her as yet unknown ‘intended’ and their Hebrew was no where near fluent enough. They were resigned to the fact that 16 years in Israel was not going to shake the ‘American’ out of them. But before taking a course in malaweh making they decided to wait and see.

Last summer was her halfway point of a 2 year Sherut Leumi (national service) program with Livnot U’Lehebanot, an Israeli based organization that works with volunteers from around the world. Elisheva was working with a group from the States that included a nice young man named Ken. It was only his second time in Israel, the first with Birthright, and he felt a strong pull to the country. His background was typical for an American Jew, some religious education till bar mitzvah, then nothing. Both his siblings had intermarried, and while his grandparents had been to the country a few times, his family had otherwise not been very involved with the Jewish community and Israel at all.

Elisheva liked Ken, but many guys on these programs were attracted to the “b’not sherut’ and she was somewhat used to the attention. The girls on staff were in many ways the ‘untouchables’, raised and educated in Israeli religious environments, knowledgeable about so many things that were a mystery to their American peers. They were, however, accessible because of their youth and position, trying to influence and open hearts and minds to the Jewish world, yet infused with an enthusiasm that made it hard to not relate to them as representative of Jewish womanhood as well. Elisheva is very spiritual, something not so usual for someone raised in a religious home, perfect for working with fellow Jews just getting a taste of their heritage. Her excitement and love of the Torah and our history, along with total command of the English language, made her the ideal person to work with the groups from out of the country.

Ken returned to the States, where he gradually took on more mitzvot, keeping Shabbat, kashrut, wearing a kippa and tzizit. His parents, though it was not always easy, respected his changing life style and made efforts to accommodate him.

Elisheva was sent by Livnot with one of the other girls to travel around the States, making Shabbatonim for ‘past chevre’ and reconnecting them with the feelings that had been awakened on their brief sojourns to the Holy Land. She was based in the New York area, and Ken was in nearby New Jersey. Their relationship developed apace. In December Ken returned to Israel to learn full time at Shapell’s- Yeshivat Darchei Noam. Elisheva came home soon after to finish her national service. By the time Ken went back to his parents for a month for Pesach (cleaning the house himself from top to bottom), the two were quite serious about the other.

There were obstacles, some overcome more easily than others. Nefesh B’Nefesh accepted Ken’s aliya application, helping him fulfill his dream of really coming home. Elisheva had to come to terms with other compromises that she had not been prepared for, having grown up in a very different way, with expectations vis-a-vis army service and other cultural norms. But as she told her mother in a flash of brilliance usually reserved for those older and wiser “Men don’t change their basic personalities. He can always learn, but if I’ve found someone whom I like just the way he is in other ways, I feel that it’s the most important thing. We’ll learn together.

”And so it was, after an incredibly hectic summer of preparations and planning, that on August 31st / 14 Elul, Elisheva married Ken – now Gedaliah Blum. The women who attended had been asked to wear white to recall the ancient custom of Tu B’Av when the maidens of ancient Israel went dancing in the fields garbed in white to attract suitors, since they had met on Tu B’ Av the previous year. The song that Naava Appelbaum was to have walked down the aisle to exactly a year before, had she and her father Dr. David, not been killed on the eve of her wedding, was played in her memory. And many other beautiful and meaningful elements were woven into that night. The site chosen, Neot Kedumim, Israel’s Biblical landscape reserve, was abloom with the seven species, and the warm summer evening was spent on a tide of dancing and singing that was as fervent as it was fun.

Gedaliah’s mother and grandmother lit candles for the first time the following Shabbat of sheva brachot. Gedaliah, a Kohen, now duchans everywhere he is needed, a pride to his people, and to his family, new and old. He intends to continue his vocation of wood-working after learning fulltime for the rest of this year.

As for Elisheva, she has been a pride to her family since she was born 21 years ago. She is continuing the way of the Imahot, near whose resting places she was raised, in Efrat, between Beit Lechem and Chevron. A source of nachat to all who know her, especially this writer, her mother. Whose fluent English level works just fine for her American son-in-law. And who revels in the magnificent artwork that Elisheva now produces, in awe at the talent that she sees developing.

May they know only happiness and the joy of a Torah life, filled with chessed and reaching out to others. And peace, please G-d. Peace for them and all of Israel.