Happy Passover!

One of my projects sort of ties in with Passover, and it's one of the ones I chose to finish in April.  Well, it's the middle of April now, and I haven't been watching the calendar, and although I've worked on this, it won't be done by the end of the month.  But recently I've become emotionally connected to it in a way that has nothing to do with stitching.

The project is part of Torah Stitch by Stitch and the goal is to create a Torah in cross stitch.  My portion is Exodus 18:26 - 19:2, and concerns the Israelites leaving Egypt and arriving at Mt Ararat after three months. What I'm stitching is in Hebrew, and since I can't read Hebrew, I needed to look up the verse in English. We have a variety of different Bibles in different translations, so I was able to find it easily.  My first sources were Christian Bibles, but I found an old copy of the Jewish Holy Scriptures in amongst DH's books, so I copied out the verses to keep with my chart and instructions.  

Sometimes books have stories not contained in their pages.  I started to look more closely at this particular edition.  It was published in the 1950's and is well worn.  I assumed that it belonged to my father-in-law, who spent much of his final years studying the Bible.  He had left a bookmark in it, a page magnifier tucked in at Psalms 40.  DH had inherited his father's books, which is how it must have found its way to a bookshelf in our bedroom.  But when I opened the front cover, I found a dedication to our brother-in-law, who had received it from his synagogue for his bar mitzvah.  So then it felt like a link to the past, joining very different people with different beliefs brought together in the same family.  I couldn't help imagining a boy who looks like my nephew, reciting his portion of the Torah while I was probably doing my homework, and then my father-in-law reading this very edition in Florida, battling multiple myeloma and seeking understanding.  This little book has traveled much and passed through many hands and, I hope, find its way to a new generation.