A certain Atonement Day

Once upon a time...

 

(Yom Kipur)

When I was a kid we shared our apartment with my mom's aunt and uncle and their daughter, my mom's cousin. They have just landed in our country from Mauritius where they have been deported by the British, and had no other place to stay.

To me they were my grandparents, as my own grandparents on both sides and many members of our family perished during the Holocaust.

On Yom Kipur's eve my mom's aunt took me aside, sat me on her knees; hugged me and kissed my brow, and raising her forefinger said:

'You must be a good boy and respect your mom and dad.'

'But I do respect my mom and dad Chocha, I answered her surprised, for whenever I wasn't a good boy, I was spanked and beaten just as a naughty boy should be beaten.

'You must be very cautious in respecting your parents, up till tomorrow night. Cause tomorrow morning before sunrise God is going to sit next to his desk, and write and sign whether you would live or die next year!'

Good God I was so frightened I've decided to fast…

The next morning I've refused to join my parents and have breakfast. Mom was proud of me, my dad was amused.

'I bet it won't last long,' he said, and went to his corner, were he used to work on whatever he had to, while he was home.

I urged them to pay a visit to the nearby synagogue and take me with them, we should appease God at least once a year I thought. Mom was almost convinced but dad objected and that was it.

At noon time when mom set the table for lunch, I gave up. I was terribly hungry and the food's odor tumbled all my defences, and it was delicious �" I'd terrible guilty feelings. But mom said that children don't have to fast on Atonement Day.

© Haim Kadman a day before Atonement Day' eve October 6^th 2011 �" all rights reserved, with God blessings.