There are weekends when the universe turns its back on you. And then there are weekends when it very clearly grew up in Boston.

We just had the latter.

Friday night, the Celtics scored an improbable win in Brooklyn, with wunderkid Hugo Gonalez sprinting in as a sub just in time to bury a game-tying three in the dying seconds of the first overtime. The Celts, at that point sans Luka Garza and Neemias Quetta, then went on to win in double OT. (For obvious reasons, I will not get into the loss in Chicago the following night on the second leg of an away back-to-back.) The Celtics, who everyone wrote off this season because of the Jayson Tatum situation, are…second in the East? And Tatum may be back this spring? All bets are off.

Saturday night, the Bruins, at home and clad in their lovely all-whites, came back three times against Montreal, with Morgan Geekie scoring a magical/invisible game-winner with just a few minutes to go. The Bruins, who collapsed at the tail end of last season and sold off seemingly half a roster’s worth of veterans, could not have entered the year with lower expectations. And yet, they are very much in the mix for the postseason, one point back of Buffalo and Montreal, with the Olympic break about to hit. There’s plenty of room on the bandwagon for all of you.

And then Sunday. This year, the Patriots, fresh off consecutive 4-13 seasons, opened the season 1-2, and everyone settled in for another run of mediocrity. Not so fast, New Englanders—the six-time champions went on an absolute heater right after that and just went into Mile High and came out with a 10-7 win in the AFC championship game after a snowpocalyptic second half. Foxboro’s finest have gone on a 16-1 run and are one win away from a seventh Super Bowl victory. One. Win. Away.

Are we playing with house money? You bet.

Can I believe it? Not really.

Do we all need the “I (heart) Drake Maye” T-shirt? Eh…no.

Do we have to win now that we’re going to the big game? Ummm…yes.

And not to be overlooked, after two straight seemingly snowless winters, we got buried by nearly two feet of snow from Sunday into Monday, granting us a snow day and an extra day to bask in the glory of all that is good in this world.

And here’s where another tradition creeps in.

There’s an expression that we repeat across generations—l’dor l’dor, from one generation to the next. It’s usually referenced regarding memory, tradition, and other things we hand down because they tell us who we are. And that’s exactly what this weekend felt like. Not just incredible wins, not just snow, but the unmistakable vibe of a city peaking. The kind of collective joy that your grandparents could explain, your parents could name, and your kids will someday pretend they experienced.

And if Psalm 126 (Shir HaMa’alot) is right when it says, “When we returned, we were like dreamers,” then this was one of those moments: a city blinking awake into sudden joy, looking around at the snow and the ecstasy of victory, and wondering if it was all really happening.

This is heritage. This is Boston.

We are so back.

This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content are presented solely by the author, and JewishBoston assumes no responsibility for them. Want to add your voice to the conversation? Publish your own post here. MORE