Mogilev, Ukraine, is a small city with a population of 35,000, a third of which had once been Jews. Most of the Jews are long gone, but Mogilev still boasts a small community of 250 Jews, some of whom have a decent vocabulary of Yiddish expressions. When two rabbinical students turned up this summer to visit, they were more than overjoyed.
We took three weeks this summer going ’round the city visiting, inspiring and listening to each and every Jew we came across. The climax of our visit was the beautiful Shabbat meal we shared with the locals, showing everyone how a real “nastayashe” (Russion for "genuine")Shabbat meal is supposed to be.
Before Shabbat commenced, all men strapped on tefillin (it was the first time for at least one man), and all the women lit Shabbat candles. One woman exclaimed emotionally, “I’m sixty years old and this was my first time lighting candles in honor of Shabbat!”
After the Shabbat prayer services, the traditional Shalom Aleichem hymn, kiddush over wine, and the breaking of the challah bread, it was finally time for the full-on kosher Shabbat cuisine.
For us it was a double celebration, as it was also Yaakov’s Jewish birthday. So as everyone tucked in to the fabulous food, all present filled their cups and charged their glasses in toast to the birthday boy, wishing him success in his coming year, and thanked us both for visiting and uplifting their congregation. They appreciated the fact that in the USA they are not forgotten.
The meal lasted late into the night, with singing, dancing, and a great time shared by all.
For the housebound who couldn’t make it to the meal, we even did a “kiddush on the spot for people on the go” in their own homes.
