{"id":7309,"date":"2025-02-19T12:34:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T17:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/?p=7309"},"modified":"2025-02-19T12:34:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T17:34:52","slug":"chocolate-cookies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/chocolate-cookies\/","title":{"rendered":"Chocolate Cookies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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There are millions of chocolate cookies in the world, but I can identify my mother\u2019s chocolate cookies from far. They have an especially chocolaty deep-dark color and they\u2019re big and beautiful and inviting. It\u2019s enough to eat just one to feel full, and they\u2019re yummy as only homemade chocolate cookies can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why I was so surprised on Sunday, when I walked down the aisle between the desks in class to go wash netilat yadayim (rituial washing prior to eating bread) <\/em>and saw just such a chocolate cookie on Naomi\u2019s desk. At first, I stopped and almost said to her: \u201cHey, what is my mother\u2019s chocolate cookie doing by you?\u201d But the next second, I understood that it wasn\u2019t nice. I bent down as if I had to fix something on my shoe and then continued to the sink. Yes. It was definitely my mother\u2019s cooky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I was chewing the tasty sandwich Ima prepared for me, I tried to figure out how a cookie from our house could have gotten to Naomi. Very soon, I had one possible answer, but it was very hard for me to digest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every month, there\u2019s one week when my mother cooks for Shabbos in extra big quantities. Part of the food is for us, and part \u2013 for Ezer Mizion. My mother is one of hundreds who have been approved to provide food to families in which one of the parents or one of the children has a serious illness and there\u2019s no one to cook food for Shabbos for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  The food for Ezer Mizion is packed into special boxes and on Thursday night, it\u2019s sent, fresh and appetizing by other volunteers. The whole project is very complicated but Ezer Mizion does a great job making sure each family gets what it needs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll tell you secretly that all of us in the family especially like the weeks when Ima cooks for Ezer Mizion. First of all, because those weeks, she prepares especially tasty food. She says that the families of the sick people have so much sadness, pain, and worry, and our job is to treat them to good food that will cheer them up and give them stremgth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, these deliveries are an experience for us. Al the kids in the family help Ima prepare the food and package it, and then some of us go with Abba, who is a volunteer driver for Ezer Mizion, collect food from other families in our neighborhood who cook for this chessed <\/em>project, and bring it all to the Ezer Mizion kitchen to be packed for the individual families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting back to the chocolate cookie I recognized on Naomi\u2019s desk: Last Thursday, Ima added to the food package a box full of fresh aromatic cookies, and when I tried to think how the cookie could have gotten to Naomi, I came to the conclusion that the food delivery that left our house came to Naomi\u2019s family. I finished eating the sandwich, but my thoughts continued to gallop. Actually, recently Naomi seemed preoccupied. She participated in games a lot less and she didn\u2019t seem so interested in what was going on in class\u2026Could it be that someone in her family is sick, chas v\u2019shalom<\/em>? What should I do about it? I only found out about it in this roundabout way, and I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s right\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At home I told Ima what I saw in class. I shared my thoughts and the many questions I had with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ima sat down with me on the couch, stroked my hair, and said softly: \u201cAccording to what you\u2019re telling me, it definitely could be that someone from Naomi\u2019s family isn\u2019t well. But as long as she doesn\u2019t tell us about it, we need to respect her wishes and not bother her with questions. But it wasn\u2019t by chance that the chocolate cookie revealed her secret to you. Hashem is sending you a message. No, an opportunity. You\u2019re such a mature young lady and such a baalas chesed<\/em> (person who searches for ways to help) . I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll find a way to cheer up Naomi and make things easier for her, even without her knowing that you\u2019re aware of her secret. That will be the perfect gemillus chessed<\/em>!<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are millions of chocolate cookies in the world, but I can identify my mother\u2019s chocolate cookies from far. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[1230,605,1838],"class_list":["post-7309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-distribution","tag-meals-for-families-dealing-with-serious-illness","tag-meals-on-wheels","tag-support-for-families-of-hospitalized-patients"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7312,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7309\/revisions\/7312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}