My son, Eyal, is 9 years old. Since moving to Florida over a year ago, Saturday night was his first sleepover with a buddy of his. As sleepovers go, they were being goofy the entire night. They were playing Nintendo, writing rap songs, rehearsing lyrics with each other, and just being jolly.
I put them to bed (or they pretended to go to sleep) at 9:00. As I was saying Shema and Hamalach Goel, two of the prayers we say at night before bed, Eyal could tell something was off with me. But, I could not muster the courage or the energy to explain...