It was in Buffalo New York, 1969.  My cousins Seth and Andy were only little boys attending a family Seder; a traditional Jewish meal to commemorate the story of the book of Exodus. A story of when our ancestors, the Hebrew people, needed to get out. 

But one part of the traditional Seder is to open the door to make sure someone very special can get in.  We fill a cup to just past overflowing, and open the door in the hope that we will be visited by the prophet Elijah – the desert prophet who reportedly rose into the heavens rather than dropping dead like the rest of us.

Seth and Andy were granted the honor of opening the door for Elijah.  Nothing unusual there.  It is an honor typically granted to bored-to-hyperactivity children by parents too full and sleepy from the heavy meal to get up and open it themselves.  To the best of my knowledge, over the thousands of years of Jewish children, no Jewish child has ever known what it is like to open the door and find Elijah ready, waiting and eager to come in.  Never for thousands of years until my cousins in Buffalo 1969.

The two boys came sprinting back to the dining room pale with shocked excitement.  “He’s here!  Elijah is at the door!” 

“Ha ha” chorused the parents.  “Very funny.  Now sit down so we can sing a few more songs.”  But there was no joke, no lie and no trick, on the boys’ faces.  They pulled at their father Nathan’s arm, desperate that he come and see Elijah, still waiting at the door.  Not sure what to make of it, several parents rose from their cushioned chairs and made their way to the door of the apartment in Buffalo.

And there he stood.  He was a tall man wearing a robe and sandals.  He had something very much like a towel wrapped around his head.  He was pink and warm and looked a bit exasperated. 

He wondered if he could use their phone.

It was the downstairs neighbor, fresh from the sauna.  He’d forgotten his keys in his apartment, and his wife seemed to have fallen asleep or else couldn’t hear his pounding from the shower.  He predicted that she would come to a ringing phone.

What a miracle!  The Jews upstairs were home having a meal and opening doors of welcome as he arrived in his time of need!

Image via Wikipedia