Tag: shul

The Babies are Named

Eight days later, Alana and Marc left camp and went home. Before they left, Alana nursed her beauties. Marc sat with the Woodsman and listened. On the eighth day, the herd of buffalo approached the babies and blessed them.

Marc got behind the wheel. Alana carefully placed the babies into her Infiniti. Alana put Depeche Mode onto the sound system and signaled it was time to go. They drove straight to the temple. Their parents were waiting. Yes, these two have parents. They are very strange. Anat, Jen, and all of the others were waiting with big smiles and gifts.

The mohel was ready to perform the circumcision on the boy. He stared at the knife. The girl was beside him. She, too, stared at the knife. The mohel gave him some Shiloh wine. Anat knew the owner of the vineyard. She had him make a remarkable vintage. Marc and Alana gave out a bottle to all attendees. The girl snagged some of it. Was this a sign she would be like her mom? As the mohel cut the foreskin, the boy just smiled. His eyes fluttered. They wanted to name him Palpatine. But settled for David Benjamin. He has this funny look in his eyes. Of course, Marc and Alana were waiting to see what he would do. Would he shoot lightning out of them, like Palpatine? The two were quite worried about how powerful their children would be. To the best of their knowledge, they are the only two born to parents who both have powers. The girl was named Sarah. They were thinking of Leia or Ashoka. Or maybe just Tano. They would probably call their kids the Star Wars nicknames. Sarah and David Benjamin seemed happy. They were dressed in cute, all-black baby clothes from Sisley.

They went to the basement of the shul for bagels and lox. Jerry was bouncing around. He was making sure Gillil was ok. A great big brother he is. Suddenly, they heard some loud noises outside.

Jay was bashing cars outside the temple. Anat immediately pelted him with raisins and dates. She was taking care of business. But Jay snuck away and entered the delivery door by the kitchen and started shooting glass. A piece shot off Sarah and Benjamin David. Marc and Alana ran over to their babies. They looked like they were smirking. They were in their strollers. The two kids looked at each other.

Suddenly, the strollers started moving. Marc and Alana got nervous. They knew the kids were ok. They knew some of their friends were waiting for this moment. They wanted it to be delayed. They certainly didn’t want their parents and other relatives to see what would happen next.

The Naming

It was a warm Thursday morning. Anat debated about doing the naming at shul or in her apartment. She was not a fan of rabbis. Marc could not stand them. Anat could have easily gotten a nice Sephardi stand-up Torah in her apartment. But she thought of her grandmother, who was devoted to her volunteer work at her shul. So, she decided the naming would be there, and the party would be in her penthouse.

A decent-sized crowd headed into her shul. She was a member and donor. She just disliked going. The phoniness of many of the congregants made her nauseous. Dan got up the amud and davened shacharit. Marc took out the Torah. Dan was not super religious. But he knew the ropes. Dan and his beloved are both Kohanim. He read the Cohen aliyah. They called up Tzipora’s husband, Elan, a Levi, for the next reading. He knew it all. Jake did shlishi. With tears, Dan held up his little jelly and latke-shooting baby. The rabbi read the prayers, and his little bundle of joy was named, Gillil. Anat was in tears. She picked the name after her grandmother. She wished she was here to see her baby at her happiest time.

They exited the shul and went to her place for a delicious or, as some would say, lish feast of bagels, bialys, cream cheese, lox, sable, white fish, cookies, and cake. The Arak was flowing. Everyone gathered around Gilli. People were snapping images. The professional photographer was an old friend of Marc’s. He was so happy it was a dairy party, he offered his services at no cost. Gillil was calm. She has not had any incidents with her powers since her birthday. But Anat and Dan knew Gillil would be a handful. Marc and Alana were briefed on what she could do. They smiled and just waited.