Ruminations upon Saturday August 31, 2024 in Prague, Czechia
We enjoyed a slower start on Shabbat morning because davening/prayers start much later at Chabad. While Chaim and I rested, the boys played quietly for a little over an hour. Amichai led everyone in games and made sure they all got breakfast. It was a nice change of pace for everyone. Eventually, we all got dressed and started walking to the Chabad house, which doubled as a kosher restaurant and prayer space.
Our walk was beautiful. Along the way we stopped at a Holocaust memorial located across from the entrance to Letná Park. Letná Park is situated atop a hill and offers gorgeous views of the city and many places for locals and tourists to relax, exercise, and play. There is even a pond where the locals and their many dogs enjoy swimming on warmer days. It happened to be the International Circus Festival over the weekend, which made our stroll through the park a little more interesting with all of the posters, carnival tents, and games set up along our path. We made it in time for Torah reading. While Chaim and I entered to daven/pray, our boys stayed outside in the restaurant area where the other children were playing. They spent their time playing games and talking about their newfound obsession, Brawl Stars, the entire time.
Davening ended just after 12:00PM. Lunch was scheduled for 1:00PM. Was it truly possible for kiddush to take an hour? Kiddush was something to behold. The restaurant doubling as a shul was packed with locals and tourists alike. The locals clearly knew how long the wait for lunch would be. Many of them had grabbed chairs along the perimeter and were either studying Torah or napping. Other locals were doing a great job of taking shots and finishing a completely full bottle of some kind of vodka while finishing every plate of food left on the table. It was quite unsettling to watch as one individual continuously stirred the food that was in a public dish with the same fork he was using to eat. No one cared and some even joined in. All I could think was “COVID is clearly far from everyone’s minds here.”
Although witnessing the table manners of said individual unsettled my stomach I was starving. To pass the time, I kept checking my watch. An obviously unhelpful thing to do when trying to make time move faster. At 1:30PM lunch was finally served. How did we know? I spotted the nappers waking up and moving toward the washing station. I figured they knew something I didn’t and just followed suit. We were seated with a lovely mother, Reggi, and her nine-year-old daughter, Rani, who live in Prague. Reggi’s English is excellent. She told us she is often seated with English speakers when she attends Chabad lunches. Although Rani didn’t speak much English, she, Eitan, Shai, and Matanel hit it off. The four of them quickly started playing games like chopsticks. They giggled and laughed with no worries about being able to speak to each other.
While they were playing, we had a great conversation with Regi. I can’t remember exactly why, but she told us we weren’t typical Americans. Apparently, there is a typical sequence of questions that American visitors tend to ask her when they eat together. We did not ask those questions, which made me wonder if we should have. A great moment for Amichai was when we were discussing the Berlin Wall, which he had just seen and continued learning about. Regi grew up in Prague before the Berlin Wall fell. Amichai was not only able to follow the conversation with a clear sense of the who, what, what, when, where, why, and how of it all. He was able to participate more actively and contribute his own ideas based on his own experiences and knowledge.
Before we were even done with lunch, Amichai was already asking if we could return the following Shabbat for lunch because the food was delicious and he loved the opportunity to eat a tasty, meat cholent.
On our walk back through Letná Park, we decided to check out more of the park. We discovered a skater park at the top. Shai, who was recently inspired by a friend in 2nd grade to try skateboarding, was in heaven. We sat and watched the skateboarders attempt multiple tricks, fail, get up, fail harder, get up, fail again, get hurt, get up, and on and on and on. We spent most of the time talking about the important of failure as a part of learning and admiring the skateboarders’ persistence and endurance. We also noticed one skateboarder who was far more centered than his peers. At some point he failed a trick pretty hard. Instead of getting upset, he took a deep breath, skated away to breathe and reset for a few minutes, and then came back to try again. What an amazing moment to talk about the important of failure AND the importance of emotional regulation. Something the whole world can do better.
About an hour later several more people joined us. Soon after Chaim and I realized a distinct smell of weed was intensifying near us. We figured this was our cue to leave. We were told there was a playground at Letná Park. We could not find it. Instead, the boys noticed some broken concrete pillars just off the path and used them to make up their own games and obstacles.
We spent the last two hours of Shabbat at home playing napping, playing chess, and snacking. It was another perfect Shabbat.
