Prague Journal

Saturday, April 23, 2005.

Ronnie and Yaffa's house is ready for Passover, and the lamb stew is slowly cooking in a crockpot, so the four of us went for a walk this morning around the The Wohl Rose Park between the Knesset and the Supreme Court Building. This park, which covers 19 acres and has a wide range of rose varieties (about 400 varieties and 15,000 plants), displays its roses all year round. The rose park includes the Garden of Nations, which is made up of sections donated by countries or communities around the world. The Garden of the Nations contains contributions from Argentina, Holland, Germany, England, Spain, and Ontario. Each section has rose varieties characteristic of, or grown in, the respective country. The park also has an Experimental Section where new varieties of roses are tested for their suitability for public and private gardens in Israel, where roses can be grown all year round.
There were twenty people at the seder this evening, nearly all of the extended Kosloff family: Danny and Ronit with their young children, Ayelet and Nativ; Danny’s older sons Joni, Zemer and Alon, who is now in the military; Miriam and Rick’s Aunt Jean, Danny and Ronnie’s mother; Ronnie and Yaffa and their three sons, Omri, Aviv, and Elad; Omri and his wife Dina and their two boys, Ofek and Yair; and Rick and me. Ray and Helen are in New York with their son Mickey and his wife Inbar. The seder was lovely and the food magnificent and plentiful.
Our last seder with the Kosloff clan was in Boulder in 1999 when Ronnie and Yaffa spent a year in Colorado. Miriam and Jean and Ray and Helen joined us there, as did Rick’s mother and sister and brother. Matt was with us then, and Molly came for her spring break. We’ll see Molly in just two days, when she visits us in Prague.
This occasion was overtly spiritual, of course, but like most Jewish holidays, it was also a deeply felt celebration of the family. For Rick this was an especially meaningful gathering, because he has been close to his Israeli kin his whole life. And what a family it is! His cousins Danny and Ronnie, have kids of their own, several now grown into fine young men. There are even grandchildren, a blessing for which we can only hope. The high point of the evening was Nativ, seven years old and unimaginably cute, asking the four questions. Life doesn’t get much sweeter than this.

posted by JWinn @ 10:29 PM