צדקה ממני*

I was playing with my niece the other day and somewhere, she picked up the word "hate" and was saying it about everything. She even said to my dad "I hate you". So I did my darndest to get her to stop. I said that's not a nice word. We don't say things like that. Maybe we don't Like something but we don't hate. And I made her apologize to my dad. And every time she would use the word "hate", I would try soooo hard not to laugh or smile - b/c she's so fun and cute and I can't not smile when she talks - so I tried so hard to keep a straight face and I would say something like "That is not a nice word. We don't use words like that. Maybe I hate the word hate, but we don't use that word. It's not nice."

After all that, I was explaining to my mom and the other grandparents that I hate when my name is announced in Shul. I just don't like the attention. I guess my niece learned a good lesson - and she taught me one also. She caught me and said "Doda, we don't use the word hate. Say you're sorry".
So I did.

*צדקה ממני. My niece is so smart and I love her.


*That phrase - "Tzadkah mimeni" - Basically, she is right and I'm wrong - is from Parshat Vayeshev (Bereishit 38:26) when Tamar proves Yehuda wrong and he admits it.