SHANE toe-bah, Y'all
Posted on September 17, 2006
Do you have a Jewish friend? This week and during the next three feel free to tell them: L'shanah tovah (sha-NAH toe-VAH) meaning "for a good year". The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah (rush ah sha nah) is this week, followed by Yom Kippur.
One of my best memories of Rosh Hashanah was when I was in my first few weeks at the University of Virginia and just getting used to people with a southern accent. There was a student named Charles, but he went by Chas... a very non-Jewish guy on our hall from Alabama.
The Rosh Hashanah holiday was about three weeks after we had arrived at school. I guess he did some research because he came up to a group of us on Rosh Hashanah and said "Hey, SHANE toe-bah, y'all."
It touched our heart... a guy from the deep South who had probably never met a Jew until two weeks before made an attempt to bridge a cultural gap.
We made him an honorary Jew right there on the spot! (He said "Y'all are NOT gonna do that circumcision thing, that's for damn sure!")
This is the time of year when Jews ask a pardon to all those they have maligned... and for me that's about most of the world! We are not allowed to ask God for a pardon until/unless we have asked our fellow men and women. I guess it's to teach us a bit of humility.
Rosh Hashanah is a happy occasion... full of good wishes, fellowship, and hope for a better time... followed a week later by the very serious "Day of Atonement" where we repent and ask to be inscribed in the "book of life" for the next year... "before the gates begin to close."
This time of year I always remember Chas. He had became a good friend of mine.. the first non-Jewish "real" friend I'd ever made. We would double-date... and even swap dates! I taught him how the stock market worked. He taught me how to drink bourbon (I got the better of that deal!).
We laughed at the Smothers Brothers show.
We cried when RFK and MLK were killed.
On graduation day in June of 1969, in cap and gown and clutching well-earned diplomas, we hugged each other, shook hands and vowed to stay in touch. We had our whole lives ahead of us. It was a good time... an exciting time.
I went off to teach school in West Virginia.
Chas, being a son of the South and from a military family, went in to the army as an ROTC officer.
I got a card from Fort Benning, Georgia that September.
All it said was "SHANE toe-bah, y'all." I laughed and laughed and laughed. I think I still have that card somewhere.
I never heard from Chas again.
He was killed in Vietnam three months later.
His name is on The Wall. I cried when I saw it.
To all of you, L'shanah tova... to a better year.
About the Author
Alan Canton has been a writer and a publisher in addition to his lifetime work as high-tech consultant. He is the author of several books (long out of print) as well as the author of the long-running Saturday Rant blog (also now dormant.)
Alan Canton has spent just over 40 years as a high-tech consultant... have ticked all the buzz-word checkboxes... programmer, analyst, system engineer, systems architect and the latest... full-stack engineer. If it has to do with computer code, he has done it... or at least most of it.
He is the managing partner of NewMedia Create which designs websites for authors, publishers, and small businesses... most often for small biz people who have "no money" but who want a simple but nice site at an reasonable price.
Ham radio is his main hobby. His callsign is K6AAI. You can see his station at his QRZ webpage.
He also runs a QSL card company and has hams from all over the country as customers. See RadioQSL.com. His favorite ham radio quote is:
"I am often asked how radio works. Well, you see, wire telegraphy is like a very long cat. You yank his tail in New York and he meows in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? Now, radio is exactly the same, except that there is no cat."
- Attributed to Albert Einstein