We would have stayed in Florida until a week or so before Pesach. However, one of my wife’s grandchildren got married in February, so we came back to Lakewood for the wedding and to catch some of the sheva brachos.
I like my new family. I still don’t know all the names of the players but they are part of a great team. I have a great big family from my stepdaughter, and, Baruch Hashem, another great big family from my stepson. All are well-known in Lakewood for their dedication to learning and chesed.
The families got together for a nice Shabbos sheva brachos – Friday night and two meals the following day at a girl’s school multi-purpose room. We were hosted by a nice family nearby with a beautiful suite for guests, as the walk from our house for us 80-plusers was too far.
No problem for Friday night davening as we had a minyan plus in the hallway. Shabbos day we would go to shul in the morning and again for Mincha. It was a short walk from where we were staying to Madison (Route 9), and the shul I wanted to go to. All I had to do was cross the street as the shul was right there. All of the sudden a man was yelling at us trying to get our attention.
He caught us before we crossed and informed us that the street we were on, Madison, was not part of the eruv. I was holding on to my rollator which held my tallis, siddur and Chumash. I couldn’t cross the street and had to turn back. My understanding of the laws regarding the eruv was since I didn’t use the rollator in the house to walk, I couldn’t use it where there’s no eruv.
You’ll probably get permission to use a walker or rollator if you ask a non-orthodox Rabbi. They may even advise you to drive. So, if you live in Lakewood or are visiting for Shabbos and use a cane, walker, or rollator to help you shlep along, make sure your destination is within the eruv.
I experienced my first Purim in Lakewood recently. For the last 12 years I was in West Palm Beach with other snowbirds mostly from the New York area. Almost all come to the Purim seudah in shul in some kind of costume. I always wore my Detroit Tiger cap and warm-up jacket with my name on it and my World Series ring with my name on it. And most of all, the shul was able to accommodate those who came to hear the megillah.
The shul I go to in the Lakewood section of Country Place was a small home that was reconfigured into a shul. There are about 30 seats for women and 40 for men. On Purim a couple of seats were added in every nook and cranny and still the seats couldn’t contain every backside of either sex. Most men couldn’t unwrap their megillahs because of the space crunch and had to share a megillah with their seat neighbor holding one end. There are two other shuls in Country Place, also former houses, they daven Sfard and I assume they also had a space problem as more and more 55 and over residents are moving in.
Unlike Florida, no one wore a costume and all the men dress as they do year-round, black suit, white shirt, black hat and grayish to whitish beard. Until the grass gets greener, the flowers bloom and the trees grow leaves, living in Country Place is like living in a black and white movie.
