Family Matters

Yesterday I wrote about the family in Alezio honoring the grandmother.  I think it’s worth seeing some pictures.  Did you notice that this all happens on the street?  The neighbors came over too.  It was really wonderful.  A weekly event for this family for more than 100 years.

As I reflected on my emotions during this experience, I realized that what held the Jews together for centuries wasn’t Torah.  At times Torah was prohibited.  It was Shabbat, a weekly event no matter if only a single family participated.  This Alezio family suffered through two world wars, destruction and a two-thousand year history of occupation, but traditions like this, honoring the elders, held them together.  Our “civilized” world of mass materialism and pointless affluence can’t stay together because we have substituted digital “friends” for family glue.  I doubt we can survive.  I know we can’t recover.