A Siyum for Zaidy

Hadran aluch Maseches Nedarim! (We shall return to you, Tractate Nedarim) In honor of Zaidy.

Now why is this one in honor of Zaidy? Easy: he told me to, in a dream.

Not kidding, hear me out.

If you've read the introduction to Zaidy's War, you will have perhaps noted that during the process of finishing the book, Zaidy would visit me in dreams often. He would never speak to me. Instead, repeatedly, I would dream that we were walking down the street together, and he would get compliments from folks poking their heads out of their houses. The metaphor of this sequence of dreams is pretty clear.

However, on Thanksgiving night, Zaidy finally spoke to me after years of silence.

I dreamed that I was sitting at my desk, when Zaidy approached me, and we had this encounter:

Zaidy: I understand you're learning Nedarim.

Me: Yes.

Zaidy: Very nice. This one you can learn for me.

Me: I will!

And I woke! After morning routine, I checked a few calendars, and wouldn't you know it, Zaidy's 9th yahrzeit falls out on the same exact day as the end of the masechte! That day is today, and my learning is in honor of R. Benzion ben R. Aharon, because he adjured me to do so, and I did. He made me make a neder, after all, and I think that's very clever of him.

May his neshama have an aliyah.

https://www.tinyurl.com/zaidyswar