Ben’s recent blog about Yiddish got me thinking about one particular Yiddish word, “beshert.” My Mom used to call my Dad her beshert because, until the day she died, they were one of the happiest married couples I have ever seen. “Beshert” essentially means “inevitable” or “preordained.”

While my husband and I do not call one another beshert as my parents did, we do use the word frequently when discussing our relationship. In order for my husband and I to have met one another, there were a series of different unrelated decisions we each had to make. If any of these minor decisions had been different, my husband and I never would have met. To me, that is the essence of beshert.

Conversely, after hearing what a wonderful group Gotham Queens is, I decided to attend a meeting. The first time I ventured to Queens, due to a miscommunication, I showed up at the wrong venue. Last week I tried again. On my way to the meeting I got into a minor fender-bender which prevented me from attending the meeting. So, while my husband and I are beshert, I am beginning to think that Gotham Queens and I may not be.

Do you have a beshert?