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| Youngest Son playing in the sand of Tel Aviv Beach in his kippah! |
Me "What honey?"
Youngest Son "Everyone here wears a kippah."
What is a kippah? A kippah (literally: dome) is the Hebrew word
for skullcap, also referred to inYiddish as a yarmulke,
or less frequently as a koppel. Traditionally, Jewish men and
boys wear the kippah at all times, a symbol of their awareness of, and
submission to, a "higher" entity.
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Our hotel room in Tel Aviv ... Youngest Son kisses his fingers and touches the mezuzah as we enter.
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| See the mezuzah on the doorpost of our hotel room? |
What is a mezuzah? In the Torah, God commands the Jewish people to hang
mezuzot on their doorposts. Two Torah portions, Shema and Vehaya,
include the verse: "And you shall inscribe these words upon the doorposts
of your house and upon your gates."
The Shema (Deuteronomy
6:4-9) begins with "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is
One." The Shema reminds us that God is always present in
our lives, and that we should keep God's words constantly in our minds and in
our hearts. The Shema tells us that one way to do this is by
writing them on the doorposts of our house. Vehaya(Deuteronomy
11:13-21) assures us of God's compensation if we fulfill his commandments (mitzvot).
It is a Torah
commandment to hang mezuzot on our doorposts. Mezuzot, in turn, remind of God's
presence and of our duty to fulfill God's commandments.
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