Today, Rabbi Meir set out to affix a mezuzah on the door of a family he had just met for the first time. A seemingly simple moment, yet one that became so much more.
Once the mezuzah was in place, he turned to Ron Kramer, the father of the family, and asked, “Would you like to put on tefillin?”
The question was direct, but the response did not come immediately. Ron, an elderly Jewish man, paused, thinking. He looked at the rabbi and then said, “The truth is, I haven’t put on tefillin since my bar mitzvah.”
And then, he added: “I still have my tefillin at home.”
Tefillin that had been tucked away in a drawer for decades. They had not been used, but they had traveled with him through different homes, through the journey of life, never forgotten.
Ron stepped away for a few moments and returned holding the same tefillin he had kept all these years. Those tefillin, silent for so long, were now wrapped around his arm once again. A powerful moment, a connection rekindled, a bond rediscovered—alive, breathing, and profound.
His two sons, Robert and Scott, stood watching. They had never put on tefillin before. But as they saw their father don them, they decided they wanted to as well. Another pair of tefillin was brought out, and together they wrapped the sacred straps around their arms. Ron sat there, enveloped in the tefillin that had waited sixty years for this very moment. His grandson also joined, and so, four Jewish men—three generations—stood together, united in a single moment of holiness, identity, and connection.
And that is the beauty of Judaism. Time passes, life changes, but some things never truly disappear.
Years may go by, even entire lifetimes, without touching them, but when they return—it feels as if they were never gone.
Our connection to G-d, to our traditions, to our tefillin, to the mezuzah on our door—this bond has no expiration date.
It is always there, waiting for us to hold onto it once more.
And that’s all it takes. Just to reconnect.
It doesn’t matter how long it has been since the last time we expressed our Jewish identity—it is always there, waiting for us.
Just put on tefillin. Just light the Shabbat candles. Just affix a mezuzah.
Just remember—this connection never breaks.
No matter how much time has passed, it is always there—warm, alive, and uniting us.
Am Yisrael Chai.
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