Mazel Tov to OYS

On Monday, OYS leaves for Israel for the year to study at the Mother Ship. But, before leaving, he will make a siyum in Masheches Kiddushin this Sunday.

While OYS and I learned a mesechta for his bar mitzvah, it was a small one and, sadly, since I, a confirmed am ha'aretz, was his "teacher", I'm not sure how much he got out of it. This is different.

This past year, 15 boys from his grade completed Kiddushin on their own. OYS decided, a little late, that he wanted to attain that same goal. During the second half of the school year he went back to the school's bais medrash for an hour or so almost every night. If he had hockey practice, he came home, showered, and went right back to school. Then, as a counselor in camp this summer, he diligently completed the task.

If someone had suggested to me, as a MO high school senior back in 1973, that I should finish a mesechta, my response would have been, "Yes, just as soon as I return from my lunar mission". If someone had suggested even two years ago that OYS would do so, I would have been very skeptical. He has grown up a lot in the last two years.

So, I express my tremendous hakoras hatov to his great Rebbeim, his great Rosh Yeshiva and his absolutely wonderful friends. And, of course, to MHW, the light of my life, who quietly serves as a role model of how to be fiercely frum yet remain normal.

Finally, to OYS himself, the one who was as determined to finish the meshechta as he was to win hockey games (l'havdil), mazel tov and chazak v'yamatz. May you continue to finish masechtas, to learn and grow, to have an absolutely fabulous year in Israel and to remain as normal as you are today.