Come on, limo. It’s freezing out here, but I know that it’s worth it. I’m thinking to myself, wow, the new shul! It’s hard to imagine, because it’s bigger and more beautiful and looks different. In the past it was one room with dividers, but now it is completely changed and it is all ours! We don’t have to disturb the Torahs while they are “sleeping” anymore.
I see the limo—finally! Here they come.
I can’t believe that everyone is already clapping when it is just the first Torah. And then everyone is yelling for joy when the second Torah comes, and then it’s the third, new Torah. When the Torah gets under the chuppah, I start the yelling and the screaming and the jumping, and then everyone follows. We gather together so we can see Rabbi Shmaya giving one of the most touching speeches ever. When he finishes, Rabbi Yisroel Shmotkin puts the mezuzah on the door, and then all the kids, including me, rush in with all this energy and excitement. I am in the finished shul for the first time. Rabbi Avremi says his speech, and all my friends and I say together, “Ahhhhhhh.”
Leigh Bojan
The Coalition for Jewish Learning is the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.