Like many Mom’s today, I was a bundle of nerves. My oldest started grade 2. No problem on that front, he went like an old pro. It was my middle child that I was worried about. It was his first day of a brand new school. He started Junior Kindergarten, and for the first time was going for a full day, instead of his usual 11:30 pick-up and then lunch with mom. I tried not to show my nerves and put on the bravest and most excited face I could muster. He seemed nervous but ok. When it was time to say goodbye though, the tears welled up and he could barely eke out a ‘mummy, please don’t leave me here’. OY!!! For any mother who’s been through this, you know how heart wrenching it can be. I spent the rest of the day anxious and wondering what my baby was doing at every moment. I counted the hours until I could go pick him up. Unable to wait it out to the bitter end, I caved and went 45 minutes early so that I could peek into the classroom and observe him. (OK, ‘spy’ on him … you mothers know exactly what I’m talking about). I envisioned him clinging with tears to the teacher, breathlessly waiting for signs of the days end and for him mummy to reappear.

The other day I was talking to one of my daughters who just finished working in a Jewish day care for the summer.  She laughingly told me of a conversation she had with one of the 3 year olds.  The group had just finished watching a slide show on Israel and it included slides of the Western Wall in Jerusalem filled with people praying.  The 3 year old asked what the people were doing at the wall and the adults answered: they’re praying.

Wanting to give a mystery moment to the children, one of the adults continued and said that no matter where you are in the city of Jerusalem, you would always face the direction of the wall when you prayed.

The 3 year old sat quietly thinking and then her face lit up and she said: ‘Oh, I get it!  So in Jerusalem everyone prays to a wall and in the rest of the world we pray to God!’

Sometimes too much information isn’t a good thing…