Dancing beyond time and space

Dear friends, 

As some of you may know, I've been a single father for a week, while Chani, Mussi and Rivky were at the Chabad women's convention in NY last weekend. After the conference they continued to Michigan, to attend the wedding of Chani's sister, Blumie.

Last weekend I decided to surprise the bride and go for 12 hours to participate in the wedding, I arranged care for the children and the rest of the things which needed to be set up prior to my departure. But as the saying goes "a man plans and G-d laughs."  I ended up having a wonderful wedding celebration in Victoria. 

A few hours before my scheduled departure, I checked the forecast of the next few days. When I learned that a wild blizzard was going to hit Michigan on the night of the wedding, I began to fear that I wouldn't be able to return home at the appointed time, and it didn't take me long to decide that I would stay home with Leibel, Mendel and Rochel.

About an hour before the Chuppah, I was very happy to hear that there would be a live webcast of the wedding. I picked up the children from Preschool early so they can watch the wedding with me.

When we started watching, Leibel was very excited, but a few minutes later his tone started changing. "How come I didn't go to the wedding?" he asked sadly, "why only Mussi and Rivky?" The video of his siblings and family attending the far away wedding didn't seem to bring him too much joy.

I started explaining to Leibel that Victoria is very far, and we were there just a few months ago, and the girls were close by so they went, but he didn't seem to reconcile...

Then an idea flashed into my mind. "Leibel," I said, "we can celebrate the wedding together, let's be part of it just like the guests in Michigan!"

Leibel's sad face turned into to the biggest smile, he was filled with a million ideas of how to set up the wedding in the nicest way. Within a few minutes we were all dressed with beautiful clothes, the table was set with nice dishes, candles and flowers, and Leibel and Mendel were watching carefully to see that we were following the wedding order...

The moment the bride and groom walked into the dance hall, Leibel, Mendel and Rochel started dancing to the music, just as if they were at the wedding. It was clear that the children were beyond time and space, they were at the wedding.

Not only did they have a full wedding experience just as the other guests in Michigan, but they managed to surpass them. How so? I was asked by my in-laws to deliver the family message at the wedding dinner; I prepared the talk - which only the Victoria guest got to hear...

Here you can watch a snap shot of a wedding celebrated 2,000 miles away from the Chuppah: