Thursday, January 26, 2006
So I met this single Jewish lady and her 5 year old at a playground. Chaya asked if they were Jewish, and gave them a candlelighting brochure. I invited them for shabbos dinner. I told her to come before candlelighting, so she could light with us.
This is all fine and good, except for the fact that we rarely have Friday night guests. Since she's not frum, I feel I should make my house seem calm and normal erev shabbos. She needs to see religious people as having their act together (as opposed to hearing my husband yell frantically through our bedroom door, "2 MINUTES!!!," while I'm rinsing the Denorex out of my hair).
I'm trying to figure out how to make my erev shabbos smoother. I wanted to make cookies this afternoon, but I'm out of parchment. I need to make them today, so I'm not baking challah and dessert tomorrow. I can't go for the parchment, Srulik is asleep and I'm too tired. The idea of shopping with children right now sounds downright hellish, anyway.
I want to make a new salad that a friend raved about. It's imitation crab meat cut into strips, with julienned carrots and cucumbers, served with a sauce of tabasco and mayonaise. She had this at a sushi place, and loved it so much she serves it on shabbos. So I had Yaakov purchase the fake crab. It sounds good, but at the same time it sounds a little weird. So not-frum-lady will also be present for a salad debut. Whenever I have guests I fret over the food.
She told me on the phone that her ex-husband had reservations about her going to a total stranger's house for dinner. I can understand that. I laughed and said, "Don't worry, we're pretty normal."
As soon as the words came out, I wondered if we really are.
Love, Maven @ 
2 Comments:
At 3:27 PM,
Anonymous said…
As the daughter of a messy divorce, I want to reassure you: yelling "2 minutes!" before candlelighting and debuting new sushi will NOT faze this woman. And what a mitzvah!
At 11:24 AM,
Wendy said…
My sister is frum & when we spend Shabbos with them, I admit I am always shocked at the chaos just before candlelighting. But when the candles are lit, the world changes. It's really quite remarkable from an outsider's point of view.
Years back when I first had Shabbos dinner in an observant home, it felt so alien. But I was grateful to be included and to experience something new, as I'm sure your guests were. It's lovely.
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