Meduros and More

Last night, Mr. NMF and I took NBD 'medurah hopping'. For all those who are so inclined, medurah hopping means traveling from one bonfire to the next, to see 'all you can see, see, see." (It's also one of my favorite days, due to the fact that it's my birthday!)

We live in a wonderful neighborhood, and as such, there are meduros everywhere one can look. The yeshiva for the young boys in the neighborhood had a special medura just for the boys. Seeing all the young ones dancing in a circle while their tattys, abbas, and daddys danced in another one was a beautiful sight to behold. Here's a picture for your viewing pleasure.


I didn't see any violations of basic fire safety, which was good to see- and I saw plenty of kids roasting marshmallows, but only after the fire had died down to glowing embers.

Everywhere I turned, there was a small medurah, built with love by the kids of the neighborhood. They take such pride in it- it's stunning to see how much they care about it.

Rabbi Chaim Walder, author of the Kids Speak series, actually has a story about how rival meduros actually led to ostracizing one kid, until both decided to join their wood and forces for the sake of peace.

For kids, medurah building, and the national Israeli pastime- ajuim/gogo collecting, are serious business, not to be taken lightly.

For those who don't know, ajuim (as they are known in Yerushalayim)/gogos (as they are known in Bnai Brak) are the pits of apricots, used in a popular Israeli game of sharpshooting. They treat the ajuim like money- and as Chaim Walder says in one of his books, how a kid uses his gogos is representative of how he will use his money later in life. The same goes for medurah building.

These games and pastimes of kids are representative of how they will act in older years, with more complicated situations.

So, encourage your kids and neighbor children to build their meduros with pride, and to share them with all. After all- they are built in R' Shimon bar Yochai's honor- and he would want all those celebrating to come and go in peace.