We just enjoyed a beautiful Passover with all of our children at home together for the first time in months—a real treat for all of us.
On Chol Hamoed we decided to go on a few trips since we were all off from work.
Challenge number one is finding somewhere in the tri-state area that isn’t packed with thousands of other people all going on Chol Hamoed trips, not to mention all the schools on spring break!
The second, and perhaps bigger, challenge, is figuring out a trip that will be enjoyed and appreciated by all ages from 19 down to our 7-year-old triplets. The teens want to go skydiving and bungee jumping and the triplets want to go to a petting zoo … kinda hard to find a middle ground there!
I was the one in charge of planning the trips, and trying to please everyone turned out to be an all-consuming task. Our mornings would start with me suggesting, “Ok, I found a great place. Let’s go to American Dream Mall.” This would be met with cries and shouts and loud opinions and lots of “I’m not going!”
The next day I’d say, “Let’s go zip-lining” and that too would descend into chaos and bickering and tears.
Finally, I just said, “Ok, enough! Everyone just get into the car and I’ll tell you where we’re going when we get there.”
Oh, we also couldn’t drive too far because our minivan doesn’t have quite enough room for all of us and it gets crampy and much fighting over who’s sitting where and who’s squishing who ensues.
But we found some interesting places! Did you know that right here in Brooklyn there’s a place you can go horseback riding on the beach? They put you on a horse, with no instructions or rules, and off you go! It reminded me of growing up in Africa. This was my kids’ first time riding and they loved it—at least the older ones did!
In the evenings we played laser tag and went to escape rooms owned and operated by my friend Meiram Wunder.
Another day we took the Subway to Times Square and went to an attraction called Rise NY, which the kids loved! It’s an immersive flight simulator that takes you soaring 30 feet in the air over the NYC skyline. It feels as if you are a bird, traveling the length and breadth of NYC from the sky.
My kids loved it, but I am terrified of heights and even though my brain kept telling me I’m sitting in a chair, on the ground, it felt so real I had to keep my eyes closed most of the time.
But as I thought about it, I began to see a parallel to our lives. What I’m seeing as I soar over NYC is not real, just like most of what we see as we soar through life isn’t real.
Money, fame, success, fancy cars, nice vacations, expensive clothes — none of that is real! It’s all a simulation. What’s real is G-dliness, Torah and mitzvot. Those and those alone are truth. Everything else is merely a fanciful distraction.
Life is fleeting. Just like the simulation is temporary and ephemeral, our lives and experiences are also too. When we recognize and accept that, we can focus on what’s really true and lasting and important: G-d. Shabbat. Kosher. Tefillin. Charity. Kindness. Prayer.