Each fall, I stand at the door of the temple nursery school to watch a parade of parents with 2-year-olds wrapped around their legs begging them not to go. Teary eyes, drippy noses, outstretched arms, the whole bit—and that’s just the moms! Some of the kids cry too. It’s hard to let go. After 45 minutes of reasoning, one mother finally said, “I know it’s sad when Mommy leaves. It’s OK to be sad. Goodbye.”
I’m not one to idealize goodbyes. Rabbis bear witness to some of life’s most awful endings: a funeral for a baby in a coffin the size of a shoebox, an ICU nurse turning off a young mother’s respirator, a son leaving his father’s nursing home. Playgrounds, airports, dorms, hospitals, front steps, nursing homes, cemeteries—all full…
