Dorothy Kraus Memoir - Homesick for Mother's Observance

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Dorothy Kraus Memoir

Homesick for Mother's Observance
Mother was not religious. However, since she was raised in a home that adhered to all religious rites, she followed some of them, one of which was the rule of not mixing milk and meat.

We had two sets of dishes, one for the milchedik (dairy) foods, and one for the fleishedik (meats). Sometimes when these dishes got mixed up, she would merely scrub them with sand and pass them on as if nothing had happened. She would bench licht (bless the candles) --a ritual she never missed-- every Friday evening before nightfall.

It was my favorite time of the whole week. Mother would cover the table with a while cloth and then set out our best dishes. But I waited for the moment when she would put her white scarf on her head, light the candles and make the circular motion with her hands around them. She would close her eyes and whisper something which I couldn't understand. I would stand near and watch her in a trance as if it were something magical. What should she be saying to the candles?

When she finished I'd often ask her to tell me what it was. She would laugh and reply, “When you are grownup and married and have your own children, then you will know what I was saying.”

At this moment I felt very lonesome for mother as I heard Esther's gentle voice saying, “If I ever have a little girl, I want her to be like you.”

Editor's Notes: This passage is mainly about Dorothy's mother, so it may at first glance seem out-of-sequence here. But it is an effective way of illustrating Dorothy's homesickness while staying with her Aunt Esther. Scrubbing a dish or pot with sand was a specified method of purification after misuse.

This material is from Original Page 43 and Original Page 44 .

Page Last Updated: 15-Nov-2012