Achild of assimilated parents spends Yom Kippur with his zeidy in the shtibel watching the old man pray with fervor and always sobbing at the same predictable place. When Zeidy leaves This World and his Yom Kippur machzor is received to his grandson he thumbs through to find the tearstains — and finds his own name penned in the margins of the ancient machzor next to the plea “Avinu Malkeinu chamol aleinu ve’al olaleinu vetapeinu — Have mercy on us and on our young children.” The prayerful tears come full circle and the grandson returns to his roots.

Rabbi Nachman Seltzer says that the story of “Teardrop Revisited” came to him on Yom Kippur and that Motzaei Yom Kippur he wrote it up into a story for Horizons magazine.

“When I was young ” says Rabbi Seltzer “my mother used to listen to a song by Moshe Yess. It was called ‘Zeidy.’ Art Raymond said that ‘Zeidy’ was the most requested song in all his years on the radio. There’s just something about a zeidy.

“A year later when I produced my album Visions this story came back to me. I wrote the tune first. Then I sat down and wrote the lyrics. I’ve found that people love this song. Maybe because it reminds them of Yom Kippur when they were young. Maybe because it reminds them of the power of a teardrop.

“Or maybe because it reminds them of their own zeidy whom they loved so very much.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 679)