By Mom:

Devorah is busy teaching English in two schools. She's lucky to be in schools that she really likes. Her workload is heavy, since in addition to teaching she also tutors a bunch of students and she also takes courses. When you like school, you try to get in as much as possible on all sides of the desk, including on top and underneath.

She recently married off her best friend and did many of the major tasks required - such as going with the kallah to find the right dress, preparing the bracha lekallah (a labor of love that took 14 hours!), being her shomeret (which was not always easy since she got requests to come right NOW! which made planning the rest of Devorah's life rather difficult), and going around with the kallah to shop for things that never occurred to the kallah to buy (the kallah was sort of on cloud 9 and wasn't always thinking straight, so Devorah did the straight thinking for her). It was a busy time.

Now other busy times have intruded into the reality of vacation. She's taking a hishtalmut course at Ohr Chaya. That's a post-degree course. Teachers take these courses in order to accumulate credits that increase their retirement pay. This course had a paper attached to it that had been assigned on Rosh Chodesh Nissan (two weeks before Pesach started) and was due Friday nine days after Pesach. Since the course is given on Sunday night, she was handing it in five days before the deadline. Not the easiest time to think about, much less write, a paper on Chassidus, and not much actual time to finish up a paper. But, that's what she did. Abba helped her sort it out and helped her make it flow like it should. They spent a long time working on it together and that was after Devorah spent a long time working on it alone. They finished it up motzaey Shabbos about 11:30 pm in time for Devorah to hear the midnight news and find out that the school strike for Sunday was indeed called off and she was really going back to teaching on Sunday morning.

Devorah Grossman, KG, ESG, HSG, B.Ed., MA and earner of hishtalmut credits.

By Devorah

Time flies when you’re having fun
And that is what I had.
Reflecting back, what have I done?
Well, why not read this ballad?

I taught and taught and taught some more,
Two hundred lovely girls,
ABC, 1234
Family, body, foods all in a whirl.

In one school, headmaster, he retired
And searched for another for the position.
I was offered it, and declined
Which proved the wisest of decisions.

Last November was a special time,
When “Where’s Ari?” went into print.
My first story, published in a book –
Let me tell you, the feeling’s sublime!

I married off my closest friends
Efrat and Luba, too.
They do come over, hubby and all,
And chat and eat Shabbos stew.

Summer was short, lazy and great
When we rested up from the year,
Tehilla and I went to a tiny kibbutz
And did nothing – for us quite queer.

All in all it was a year full of things going on,
At home, at work and at school,
Except marriage, I can say, now that úùñ"â’s almost gone,
Quite accomplished, quite exciting, quite full.

Shana Tova!

Ksiva Vechasima Tova.

Find out more about Devorah

Find out more about the Grossman family

Find out about Jewish Groups