WHAT MATTERS MOST

I openly admit that I have Barbra Stresiand’s new CD continuously filling my Prius with music as I travel around the city showing houses. Her new album features songs by her long-time friends, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and makes it quite clear that this singer/actress still has one of the most clear and powerful voices ever to grace a sound stage. Her phrasing is perfect, her whole notes amazing and her ability to sell the song’s lyrics are unmatched. The title song is David Foster’s What Matters Most, a gorgeous melody with an even better lyric. The last verse says, “It’s not how many summer times we had to give to fall, the laughter and the tears we gratefully recall. What matters most is that we loved at all.” As I sat in a back row of my synagogue last night, I soaked in the melodies in Hebrew the Hazzan was chanting. I don’t know all the words, but the melodies are part and parcel of who I am – a Jewish woman who loves feeling connected to her Jewish roots. Though I don’t know the names of many of the people who were sharing that service with me, it doesn’t matter. I know who they are. They are a replica of the Jewish community in New Jersey where I grew up. They are Jews who have been able to reap the huge blessing of living in a society that provides them with opportunities that were unheard of until our shared American experience. Last night was especially meaningful as all veterans and active members of the military were honored as Shabbat and Veterans Day occurred on one and the same date. As Rabbi called out the names and ranks of military people in the congregation, I was stunned by the number of men and women who stood up. Some were World War II survivors, some were present day members of the military and others were middle-aged men and women who had served their country in peacetime. And who could believe that the highest-ranking person honored was a Jewish woman! These were members of the American Jewish community who were willing to serve their country in the military whether in war or peacetime. I thought of the lyric that reminded me of what matters most. For these men and women, what mattered most was not just reaping the benefits of life in America, but being a part of the military troops that were willing to defend those benefits. I can’t recall a more touching moment than when everyone in the social hall rose to their feet, put their hands on their hearts, faced the American flags on the buffet table and sang My Country Tis’ of Thee together. It was definitely a “wow” experience. While getting dressed for synagogue just hours before, I had barely paid attention when the advertisement for a production of Fiddler on the Roof flashed across the television screen. I have often quipped, “What would be so terrible if I had written another musical like that which would be enjoyed by Jewish and general audiences for generations to come?” But on the way home, I realized that I, too, could have lived in fear of Russian Cossacks attacking my village if I had been born in a different time and place. My Russian maiden name of Walcoff would have made me eligible for such a life if I had not been born several generations later in a small New Jersey town. Checking my email before heading off to bed, I read an article in the New York Daily News that had been forwarded to me by a Jewish friend. It seems that anti-Semitic vandals had torched several cars in a heavily populated Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. They painted a swastika on one vehicle, SS on another and KKK on a third. “It’s not so much that the cars got blown up,” said one of the local residents. “It’s the hatred behind it that’s chilling.” There’s no question that there are occasional outbreaks of hatred for Jews in our country, but, for the most part, as said New York Mayor Bloomberg, “New York (America) is home to more than 8(300) million of the most open and tolerant people in the world.” Before turning off the lights, I reminded myself of what matters most to me. It’s not buying that striking 2012 red Prius I have my eye on, or selling that $1.6 million dollar ranch in the Hill Country. It’s being thankful for the incredibly blessed life my entire family and I are living right now in San Antonio, Texas