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| OHCC LIVING | OCTOBER 2022 | 27 Yiddish Club As fall will shortly be upon us, be sure to mark your calendars for our Mon., Oct. 17 membership meeting, from 7 to 9 pm in Abravanel Hall. Our program will be announced through upcoming emails. I know that everyone is looking forward to our Hanukkah luncheon to be held on Dec. 18, from 12 to 3 pm in Abravanel Hall, with delicious deli food and fabulous entertainment, all served up with joyous Hanukkah cheer! Now, let's talk about a lesser-known holiday, Simchat Torah: Simchat Torah will be celebrated this year on Oct. 18. The holiday is a joyous occasion with dancing and feasting to celebrate the conclusion of the reading of the entire Five books of Moses. The last chapters of Deuteronomy are read and, immediately thereafter, the first book of Genesis is begun, to show that the Torah has neither a beginning nor an ending. I remember this holiday, because as a nine-year-old, "Donny,",I was able to participate in the joy of this holiday with my Orthodox grandfather in his tiny shul (synagogue) in Brooklyn. He bought me a small "Simchat Torah" flag mounted on a wooden stick on which he impaled a small apple. My grandfather would use his tiny pocket knife to cut a small hole in the apple and then would stick a very small candle into the apple. "Be careful mine kinde" (my child), he said as he lit the candle sticking out of the apple, mounted on the flag. I then joined dozens of other boys outside the synagogue, who, carrying lit candles on flags, were marching, dancing and singing in the street. Later that evening my friends and I, not yet of bar mitzvah age, would gather around the Bema (the platform or pulpit) and a prayer shawl would be spread over our heads like a canopy. The rabbi then read a passage from the Torah and blessed all of us. Eighty years have passed, but I still remember the celebration of "Simchat Torah" in a tiny synagogue on a street in Brooklyn, New York. Yiddish Word Of The Month: Mohel or Moel — pronounced moy-l. The mohel is the man who circumcises the male baby in the ritual "Brit Milah" eight days after the child's birth. A Joke: A man passed a store window with nothing in it but a clock, stepped inside, and asked, "How long would it take to fix my watch?" "How should I know?" shrugged the baleboss (owner). "I don't fix watches, I'm a mohel." "But in YOUR window, YOU have a clock!" "So, what would YOU put in the window?" Forward by Elaine Massei, President Article by Don Kent, Past Vice President

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