The Ties that Bind

It occurred to me that I had TWO forms of the word "tie" to write about (poor English grammar..., so sue me)...

When we landed on July 7, 2009 on Aliya, I removed the tie that I had been wearing. A tie had been a part of my wardrobe 365 days a year for the past ten years. That was then...this is now. As of the date of Aliya, I had not worn a tie (nor had a reason to wear one) for almost six months. However, the other night, I attended a wedding (my third in the past few months) and was told that at THIS wedding, I would be best off wearing a tie. So, I opened the bag into which all of my ties had been waiting dutifully to be used and scanned the lot of them. I took one in hand, and while walking to the mirror, I wondered aloud if I would remember how to tie a tie! Well, it was like riding a bicycle, and I was able to put it on with no problems. Except...after not wearing a tie for six months, putting on one now actually felt strange. How is it that something that had been so much a part of my dress had now felt so foreign and strange. I wore the tie until the middle of the dancing when I joined dozens of others who (blessedly) removed their's!

But there is another form of "tie" to talk about as well. On Sunday last week, I got together with some of my cousins from Toronto, who were in town for a visit. Then this past Shabbat, we had the pleasure of hosting Andy's twin sister, Sandy, her husband, Steve and my in-laws, the Shwarzsteins. Sandy and Steve are in for a visit from Chicago and my in-laws were "in town" from Neve Yaakov. As we all sat around the Shabbat table, and as we all sat in virtually the exact same seats at the table as we used to when we got together back in Chicago I realized how close our family ties truly are. We spent a beautiful Shabbat together catching up and picking up right where we last left off.

Our ties to our family both here and in Chicago and Toronto, and our ties to our new community in Maale Adumim are truly very strong ties that bind us together.

So, this past week featured one tie that was uncomfortable and one "tie" that was MORE than comfortable.