I too have a son named Elijah. He’s turning 9 next month, the eldest of my two sons.
The year before he was born, my dad died of a sudden heart attack. It was years after I chose the name that an old man mentioned that the nameElijah, is synonymous with reincarnation.

Thought you’d like to know. It helps me through sometimes.

N.

So I have now been through the last 4+ years of your life.  And I think I can say that your mother would be very proud of you over the last three years.  Even if she’d be a little puzzled about your joining an orthodox shul (okay, modern orthodox).

Like you, I grew up with a more tenuous, other side of reform, Judaism.  My parents, z”l, were atheists, former communists, but with a strong Jewish identity.  So they joined a reform synagogue so that I and my sister could have a Jewish education.  They may have been atheists, but the G-d that they didn’t believe in was the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So when I joined an Orthodox shul, it confused my mom.  And when I became secretary, even more so (she didn’t live to see me become treasurer and then president).  But I still remember the Friday afternoon when I stopped by her apartment, as every week, and as I left to get home for Shabbat, she said “Good Shabbos.  There, I said it!”  Amazed at herself, I think.

It has been more than 17 years, but I still think of her almost every day.

May your mother’s memory always be for a blessing, and may you always make her proud.

Bill Landau