Bar Mitzvah Musings
I’d like to thank the many of you that wrote me in the past few weeks, or that wrote to wish us mazel tov on our son’s bar mitzvah. Yes, B”H, Hashem helped us and we had an evening reception that was a bar catered by just our family. We all pitched in and it came out beautiful.
Regardless of how one celebrates a simcha such as this, the real apex of a bar mitzvah day is the point at which the young man puts on his tefillin for the first time. It’s an extremely holy moment, one of the holiest points in a boy’s entire life. We are taught that at this time Hashem opens up the Heavens Above and literally showers down on the bar mitzvah boy tons and tons of blessings and holiness. As the mother you can use this special opportunity to pour out your heart and ask for anything at all; for your son, yourself, your family and the entire Jewish People. My sister gave me a beautiful article adapted from a shiur by Rebbetzin Vital Kalmanowitz that gave me so much inspiration. This gave me a totally different understanding of what the focus of the day should be on. So while, yes, I did do it myself – my daughters and I worked all summer preparing, freezing and cooking and baking – it was really Hashem that made it all come together and the highlight was when he put on his tefillin earlier that day.
I had wanted to keep a log of everything I did and how I organized the time beforehand but so far, that did not yet happen! Like I say, “G-d in His goodness gave me a son and He also gave him to me right after Succos – not Pesach – so I had over five months to prepare!” And I was busier than I ever expected to be with nary a minute to write it all down. I hope to somehow do so in the future – I hope!
