Parashat Bo: Cool

Exodus 12:1: “This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.”

“You know what’s cool, dad?” My son asks me every day, every hour.

Usually it’s some toy he’s seen (and of course wants), or something he’s read or watched.

Sometimes he tells me breathlessly, a mantra of cool

Rattled off at breakneck speed, overwhelming all of my senses

taking my breath away.

And then I realize that for him, everything in every moment is new.

There is no jadedness, no cynicism; the world is new every day, every moment.

Everything is cool: the dog

and the trees

and the stars

and the stick on the ground which looks like a slingshot

and the magic trick his best friend showed him

and the Legos he got for Chanukah

and Science

and the joke his grandfather taught him

and how he can make his hair into a Mohawk at bath time

and the new block from karate

and how he heard God’s Still Small Voice in services once when he listened really hard.

and it’s all so cool he needs to share it with every breath he has

And he shares it with me.

Chadesh Yameinu mikedem: Renew my days, O God, as they were

When I saw through boyish eyes, and everything was cool.