Sibling Schmooze

Kayin and Hevel. Yaakov and Eisav. Rochel and Leah. Yosef and his brothers.

Sibling relationships, as seen throughout Tanach — and in our lives today — can be so complicated. They can encompass love and friction, harmony and rivalry, protectiveness and bitterness — sometimes all at the same time.

When we decided to Schmooze about Siblings, we thought we’d explore these dynamic relationships and see how they did — or didn’t — apply to our own family. Yet, as each of us started viewing the subject from a different angle, we discovered one immutable reality: All roads lead to our mother, Rose Stark a”h.

As in many of our previous Schmoozes, she turns out to be the common denominator, the glue, in all our sibling relationships. It’s Mommy who exemplifies the eternal mother-child bond and perpetuates the memory of the brother we never knew. It’s Mommy who unites the three of us with our fourth half-sister. And it’s Mommy whose influence continues to keep each of us watching out for the other, whose memory keeps us schmoozing together — on land and even in the cool, clear waters of the Kinneret.