Celebrating 45

With A Torah Trifecta: This week Mr & Mrs Abq Jew joyfully celebrated their 45th Wedding Anniversary. Yes, four and a half decades is a huge achievement. 

The traditional gift for #45 is sapphire, but Mr & Mrs Abq Jew gave each other nothing but 45 years of love. And a Torah Trifecta!

Yes, this Shabbat is special! The Torah reading is Mishpatim, making this the Shabbat of a Million Regulations (see Writing Down the Laws). 

And it's Rosh Hodesh Adar, the month when we increase out happiness as we await Purim (see Suddenly Adar, Thomas). And it's Shabbat Shekalim, aka Infrastructure Shabbat (see Old Time Taxes).

But - in case you hadn't noticed - this year is also different. No one is going to shul for the Torah reading. Or the Haftorah reading. But what we would do is:

1. Read the weekly Torah portion (Mishpatim).
2. Read the Torah portion for Rosh Hodesh.
3. Read the Torah portion for Shekalim. 

And the Haftorah? You guessed it! It's the Haftorah for Shabbat Shekalim! 

Well, it's not a sapphire. But, as Mr & Mrs Abq Jew look back on their 45 years together, we lovingly remember Torvill and Dean's ice dancing perfection at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

For those of you too young to remember - Watch, learn, enjoy. You'll never see anything like this again.

Torvill and Dean (Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean) are English ice dancers and former British, European, Olympic and World champions. 

At the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics the pair won gold and became the highest scoring figure skaters of all time (for a single programme) receiving twelve perfect 6.0s and six 5.9s which included artistic impression scores of 6.0 from every judge, after skating to Maurice Ravel's Boléro. 

One of the most-watched television events ever in the United Kingdom, their 1984 Olympics performance was watched by a British television audience of more than 24 million people

Abq Jew (but, strangely, not Mrs Abq Jew) has often been asked

What is the secret of a good marriage?

In The Everyday Torah, Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson writes:

I sometimes feel amazed that I can live with myself all the time. That my wife chooses to do so is altogether remarkable.

Abq Jew agrees like totally.

And while we're talking ... remember! this weekend!